EVIL BOYS
by rosesndsweetpeas
Summary: {Read the title like that Phineas and Ferb song} What would have happened if Carlos did take the truth gummy instead of Dude? What truths would he spill? When Carlos has no choice but to tell the truth and lets his big secret slip to Jane, how long can Carlos really keep it under wraps?
1. Chapter 1

_"_ _So… this thing will make me say what I really feel to Jane?"_

 _"_ _Yeah. I mean, this is a truth gummy so take it or leave it."_

 _"_ _Perfect."_

 _"_ _Hold on though… are you sure that you want to be taking this because this is going to make you say the truth, all the time, no matter what and the only reason that I'm asking is because I know that if I took this right now I would get myself sent back to the isle which it's not that that seems super unappealing but you know?"_

 _"_ _Yeah, I'll take my chances I guess."_

* * *

Mal handed Carlos the gummy and watched as he put it in his mouth and chewed, his face contorting in disgust as he did.

"Ugh, that's gross." He said after swallowing the magical sweet.

"Well? Do you feel any different?" Mal asked.

"Not really. I guess I should just go find Jane and see if it worked?"

"Good idea."

"Thanks Mal, I owe you." Carlos said as he dashed towards to the door to leave and turned into the hallway.

"No… problem." Mal quietly said half to herself and half to Carlos as he left mid-sentence.

She wanted things to work out for Carlos the way he wanted them to, she really did, but she wished that he had taken her advice and maybe not taken the truth gummy. Although he had never said anything out right to her, she had her suspicions that his feelings for Jane weren't the truth and now that he'd taken it, his actual truth was about to come out. Not that Mal hadn't been waiting for that day pretty much since she'd met Carlos, she just didn't want to be the reason for something bad happening to him or his feelings getting hurt. She shook the thoughts from her head and tried not to think about it, she had her own truths to work through and needed to try and stay out of other people's dramas. She would just have to wait until later to see what would happen.

Meanwhile, Carlos was rushing around the school, trying to track down Jane whilst also trying to avoid everyone else so that he didn't spill any unwanted – yet true – opinions he had on his fellow classmates. He had to be careful now that he had no choice but to tell the truth. A thought that only briefly crossed his mind was how long exactly the gummy would last since he didn't even know if it had kicked in yet. It wasn't a case of if it would work, Carlos trusted Mal and her magic and knew what she was capable of, he just wanted to be wary in case it suddenly took affect and lasted indefinitely. Carlos wanted it to last long enough to tell Jane how he felt but also didn't want to be going around forever, spouting the absolute truth all the time.

He finally found Jane leaving the library, carrying a stack of papers and books in her arms and looking distant. Carlos ran over to her, bouncing like an excited puppy; a change of tune from only the day before when he could barely even get a word out to Jane.

"Jane hi!" he almost shouted in her face.

Jane jumped, startled at the sudden loud noise that had just distracted her from her train of though.

"Oh, hey Carlos, what's up?" she said once she had regained her composure.

"Uhh, I need to ask you something about cotillion."

"Oh yeah, great, what is it? Is it about decorations because I am so open to suggestions right now; I keep asking Mal what she thinks but she always seems busy. I mean with all the lady of the court stuff, anyone would be busy but this is kind of important too you know? I don't want to bug her though; I know she must be stressed."

"Uhh… yeah, right, actually I didn't come to talk about that. I came to ask you… if… wanted to go with me… but now that I think about it… the _truth_ is…. I really want to ask Jay out." Carlos blurted out as if he no longer had control over what his mouth did, "And I took this truth gummy thing to make me tell you how I feel but I guess it kind of backfired. But if you think about it, I did just tell you how I feel so maybe it did its job after all. Wow, I needed to get all that off my chest, I feel like a weight has been lifted. I'm gunna go hide somewhere now and wait for this to wear off so that I don't somehow bump into Jay and tell him that I'm kind of in love with him. Oh God, did I just say that? I need to go, good luck with your decorations or whatever!"

He bolted off; leaving Jane in a state of shock and confusion that took her a minute to comprehend. She looked after the excitable boy with a puzzled expression on her face and wondered why he just spilled his guts to her like that and what in the world a truth gummy was. Eventually, she just shook her head in disbelief and wandered slowly on, trying to organise her thoughts enough to return to cotillion planning.

Carlos ran as quickly as he could out of sight from Jane and then stopped to think about what had just happened. This was not what he wanted, this is not what he planned and if he was honest, he did understand but it was definitely not what he was expecting. Of course he had thought about… feelings like this before but people on the Isle – especially his mother – weren't exactly so open and accepting when it came to emotions and affection especially that of others' and even more so if it wasn't exactly 'the norm'. But since he had lived in Auradon he had been desperate to be a new form of normal _with_ feelings. Feelings towards Jane. He thought that was what he wanted or at least tried to make it what he wanted. He just wanted to be normal and somehow, even in this more accepting world, it was even more important to fit in and be accepted by everyone; he hadn't given himself a chance to really think about what he actually wanted. What he _truly_ wanted. And now that the gummy was forcing him to tell not only other people the truth but also himself, he had to face his thoughts and feelings all at once and it was extremely overwhelming.

He sat down on the floor behind a bush, trimmed to resemble a frog and pulled his knees up to his chest, trying hard not to start hyperventilating. If Jane knew about his secret, then how long would it be before everyone else did to, including Jay, was all he could think about. He was sure that Jane wouldn't tell anyone and he was also pretty sure that what he had told her was so difficult to actually understand that she couldn't tell anyone even if she did want to. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

 _'_ _Okay, I just have to avoid Jay until this wears off. When does this thing wear off? Right, I'll go find Mal then just find somewhere nice and secluded to lay low for however long it takes and then everything will be fine.'_ Carlos thought to himself, trying to provide some reassurance by getting a plan of action.

He took a deep, shaky breath and stood up from his ball on the floor and set off to find Mal. She was probably still in her room so that was the first place he decided to go. The only problem was, it was on the other side of the school and he would have to run and avoid Jay all that way. He could cut across the Tourney field as a shortcut but if practice had been moved there for the day, he would run into Jay. He could go the long way but prolonged exposure and going past the gym would also mean the possibility of running into Jay. Carlos weighed up his options and decided to go for the short cut. He was sure Jay had said something about the field condition not being right for practice last week so if that was still the case, it would be unlikely that the team would be there today. He hoped that was still the case.

Walking cautiously towards the Tourney field, Carlos planned out in his head what he would do if he really did run into Jay on his travels back to the dorms. He decided the best option in his condition was to run. Just run and don't look back. He would have gone with 'deny, deny, deny' but with the truth gummy working its magic, he wasn't sure that would be an option available to him. Carlos walked at a quickened pace but did not run as he thought it was better to be careful than fast in this situation and also wanted to save his energy for if he had to make an emergency break for it at any point. Okay, this was it; he approached the field, hiding out of sight with his back pressed against a wall on the edge of the grass. He took a couple of deep breaths before turning the corner and bolting without even taking a look to see if anyone was already there. It seemed like it was going to be a clear run and he would make it until someone from his left called out,

"Hey, Carlos!"

He froze. The voice sounded familiar but he was relieved that it was definitely not Jay. Part of him hated that he knew that because he didn't get the almost electric-like tingles through his body that he usually got whenever Jay said his name. Carlos slowly turned towards the voice and saw Chad running to catch up to him.

"Oh, hi Chad." Carlos said when he was close enough to be able to speak in a normal speaking voice.

If there was one person other than Jay that he did not want to run into that day, it was Chad; not that he didn't like him per se, just that there was a limit with Chad; only so much of him one person can take and with all the unwanted visits to his room recently, Carlos was pretty quickly reaching that point. He knew Chad was harmless but he also always found a way to get under people's skin and there were some thoughts that Carlos would rather keep to himself.

"What do you want?" Carlos prompted when Chad did nothing but give him a toothy grin.

"Oh, nothin'. I just wanted to say hi, you know, as _buddies_ do." Chad answered him, charisma lacing every word that came out of his mouth.

Carlos rolled his eyes – he knew he wanted something from him – and sighed, "right. Well, hi." And began to walk away from him.

"Uhh, wait!" Chad called after him, stopping him in his tracks once again, "I actually wanted to ask for a favour. As a _buddy_."

"What is it?"

"You know the sweet 3D printer you and Jay have in your dorm? Well I was wondering if I could swing by later and print something. It's for a… uh… business proposal I have for my father. I think with some props, he'd totally be open to the idea."

Carlos bit his tongue. That stupid 3D printer was the reason Chad had been paying so many visits, even when Jay and Carlos were not in their room and he was getting sick of it. He tried to stop himself from these words slipping out but it was no good and before he'd even registered saying anything at all, his frustration bubbled over and the words were out,

"Chad. You have been using that damn printer since we got it! You made a key for _our_ room and just let yourself in whenever you please. I need my space; my _own_ space away from all the prissy princes around here. Is it _so_ much to ask that you don't just waltz into our room all the time?"

Chad stopped in his tracks, his smile slowly fading as he registered Carlos' annoyance.

"So… that's a no then?" He asked.

Carlos rolled his eyes and was about to say something else when his thought was cut off by the sound of a voice calling over to them from somewhere not too far behind Chad. The voice he had been trying to avoid and dreading the idea of hearing it. It was Jay. Even without being able to see around Chad's annoying, large head, he knew. He got the ever so familiar shivers that came along with Jay's low, calming voice and it took him aback for a second; way more than it usually did.

"Chad, man, come on!" He shouted, running towards the two boys off to the side of the field.

Carlos peaked around Chad and saw Jay coming towards them and felt like he was going to word-vomit all over him at any second. He could not let him get any closer and he most definitely could not let him speak to him.

"Oh, hey Carlos!" Jay called, closer now and approaching quickly with a dazzling smile on his face now.

Carlos did nothing but stare at him for all of a second before snapping out of it and springing back to life. Jay was now only a few strides away and Carlos knew he had to move at risk of letting something slip. He gave a panicked smile before bolting off into the direction he was headed in the first place, shouting something over his shoulder that vaguely resembled the words 'hi, gotta bye!" as he scampered off as fast as he could.

When Jay reached Chad's side less than a second later, he looked after his friend in confusion and asked Chad,

"What was that about?"

"No idea man, hey, can I stop by your room later?"

Jay slapped Chad playfully on his shoulder and shook his head in response before running back to the rest of his team to continue with practice. He was still confused as to why Carlos had scuttled away so quickly but shrugged it off just as fast, presuming it was because of Chad bothering him about the 3D printer.


	2. Chapter 2

Carlos burst into Mal's room and slammed the door shut behind him, leaning against it as if to keep someone out with his eyes squeezed shut in his state of stress, not even looking or announcing his presence.

"Umm, Carlos! I'm changing here, what the hell?" Mal yelled at him from across the room where she was clutching her dress up to her chest.

Carlos opened his eyes for a split second from his previous scrunched up in embarrassment expression "Oh my God, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't see anything, promise, and you know… I can't lie!" Carlos turned around to face the door to give Mal some privacy before continuing with his blurted out speech, "I mean, it's not like I haven't seen it all before you know, we did kinda grow up together." He began to laugh nervously and wished his mouth would just stop working.

"Not the point! Why are you back so soon anyway? What happened?" Mal asked him, half concerned, half annoyed at his outburst into her room.

"Sorry" Carlos repeated, "I just… I went to Jane and I did tell her how I feel but I didn't tell her that I wanted to go out with her. Well I did but then I told her the truth and I couldn't help it and now I don't know what to do." He started to panic.

Mal slipped on her dress as quickly as she could before giving Carlos the all clear, "Okay, you can turn around now. Actually, could you just do this zipper up? All these damn dresses some with complicated contraptions of one kind or another." Mal asked as she walked over towards the boy who now looked worryingly pale.

Mal held her blonde hair back whilst Carlos zipped up the back of her dress, constricting her breathing just a enough to remind Mal of why she really hated the things. She then turned back around to face him to find out what on earth had gotten the shaken boy so flustered, "And breathe. Tell me what happened. What exactly did you say to Jane?"

"I told her…" He began, trying to keep the truth down despite knowing that the gummy wouldn't let that happen, "I told her that I loved Jay. And that I was going to ask her out but I actually want to ask him out and oh my God what have I done? I can't believe this, why did I do that? I didn't even tell myself all that and now I've just gone and told Jane everything? Oh my God... you know, this is your fault!"

"Me? I tried to warn you! God, I knew this would happen, I knew I shouldn't have let you go running off to Jane on your own." Mal started pacing in front of Carlos, not looking shocked but as if she was hatching a plan.

"Wait, you knew? You're not shocked? You don't think I'm weird?"

Mal stopped in her tracks and looked up at her friend who was now looking extremely close to either crying, passing out or both.

"Carlos, firstly sit down. Look, I didn't _know_ but I suspected. Evie and I have kinda had bets on it for a while now. I have to let her make me over now." Mal shivered at the thought before regaining focus, "anyway, of course I don't think you're weird, why would I? I have Ben and Evie has Doug; I know what… love is now… I think." She shook her head slightly, "we're not on the Isle anymore Carlos, we are allowed to have feelings."

"Yeah, I know. It's just… Jay's my best friend. And I didn't even know I had these feelings until like ten minutes ago. I mean obviously I thought about stuff like that but not _this_. You know?" Carlos sighed and put his head into his hands in defeat.

Mal looked down at her weary friend and sighed softly, worried for him. She placed a hand hesitantly on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

"What did Jane say when you told her?" She asked.

"Not much. I kinda screamed at her and ran away before she had the chance to say anything. Oh God what if she tells people? What if she tells Jay? Jay _cannot_ find out about this."

"Yeah, okay." Mal stood up from her spot on the bed next to Carlos and started pacing again, but slower this time as to not get her vulnerable friend more worked up, "okay, you stay here and lay low for a while. I'll go find Jane and see what she actually got from your little outburst and make sure she's not going to tell. If Evie comes back then, I don't know, make an excuse to leave. Or tell her; whatever you want to do, I really don't think Evie will say anything to anyone. The again, I really don't want that make over. Maybe try and keep it quiet for a little longer." Mal let out a small laugh at this which made Carlos smile a little before going back to his expression of turmoil. "But wherever you go, I'll meet you back here in 20 minutes, okay?"

Carlos nodded, standing up to move over to Mal's desk and taking a seat, collecting a book he could keep himself entertained with whilst she was gone. Mal slipped on her shoes and started towards the door,

"Oh, Mal?" Carlos called to her from his place sitting at the desk.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"How long do you think this will last? I really don't want to be walking around telling everyone the truth for the rest of my life."

"24 hours and it should've worn off. I'm not really sure what we're going to do with you for the next… 23 and a half hours to keep you away from people but we'll work something out. Right, I'll be back in 20." And with that, she left.

Carlos leant back in his chair and let out a frustrated, whiny growl. Why was he so dumb? Why did he think this was a good idea? Even if he did like Jane, the whole idea of a truth gummy seemed completely ridiculous right about now. He sat back up straight and actually began reading (well flicking through) the book he had picked up. It was something about fairy magic in the old days and as much as that would usually be something Carlos was interested in, he couldn't focus and was far too concerned about how long Mal had been and when she would come back.

* * *

Mal walked as quickly as she could without looking suspicious, in search of Jane. She knew that really, if she stood still for long enough, Jane and her endless list of questions about cotillion would gravitate towards her eventually without any effort on her part. Mal had developed an extremely low tolerance for cotillion since the whole thing seemed to be dependent on what she wanted and as much as she enjoyed Jane as a person; her questions were becoming increasingly tiresome. She shook the thoughts from her head and concentrated on where Jane could possibly be. She had already checked the library, the gardens and girls' bathroom and was quickly running out of places to look. Mal stopped for a moment to think, pouting a little and looking around at potential places Jane could be. When she was about to start moving again, she spotted Lonnie just ahead and decided that she was her best bet to finding Jane.

"Hey, Lonnie, wait up a sec!" Mal called in Lonnie's direction.

Lonnie turned to look at Mal and waved a little, walking towards her to meet in the middle.

"Hey, Mal, what's up?" Lonnie said in her overly chipper voice.

"I was just looking for Jane, have you seen her?"

"Not since this morning. Why?"

"I uh… just have to talk to her about… cotillion! Yeah, I know she's wanted decisions from me and I just got a free moment, you know, busy, busy, busy!" Mal said, trying to sound equally as chipper as to not be suspicious.

"Well I'm headed to the gym right now and I know some of the girls go there sometimes to watch the boys practice. You could try there?" Lonnie offered.

"Yeah, perfect, let's go! No time to waste! Like I said, busy, busy, busy!" Mal said, urging Lonnie forwards in the direction of the gym.

Mal quickened her pace, looking at the watch on Lonnie's wrist ever so often to make sure she wasn't leaving Carlos for too long. She had five more minutes until her twenty was up and she didn't want to be AWOL for too much longer. The two girls entered the gym but as Mal went to go upstairs, Lonnie stopped her,

"Um, I'm gonna go this way, I'll catch up with you later." She told Mal who was in too much of a rush to really register what was going on with Lonnie.

Mal reached the top of the stairs in a hurry and saw Jane right in front of her. She stopped for a second to catch her breath from all the brisk walking and stair running before walking over to the small crowd of girls next to the banisters.

"Jane, hi!" Mal almost shouted.

For the second time that day, Jane jumped in shock at one of the villain kids shouting her name in her face. It was almost becoming routine.

"Oh hey, Mal, what's up?" Jane said; trying to shrug off the near heart attack feeling Mal had just induced.

"Can I talk to you for a sec? Like in private?" Mal asked, eyeing the other girls in the group slightly.

Jane nodded and Mal ushered her over to the side where they would be out of earshot of anyone trying to eavesdrop.

"Did Carlos come and speak to you earlier?" Mal asked, trying to seem nonchalant.

"Oh. Yeah, he was being super weird though. Why do you ask?" Jane said.

"Yeah he's been a little off today, I just wonder if he might have said anything to you about what might be wrong?"

In the background, the two girls could vaguely hear the commotion from the boys practicing below them and Chad's big mouth speaking up about something he didn't agree with and arguing with someone. This was nothing new but Mal's mind wandered a little to think back to where Lonnie left her at the bottom of the stairs but didn't let herself dwell on it, she was on a mission. However, she could tell that Jane _was_ getting distracted by this and snapped her fingers in front of her distant expression.

Jane jumped a little before getting back to her train of thought, "Umm well he was kinda rambling and speaking _way_ too fast for me to get much, and anyway, my mind's complete cotillion mush right now. I think he said something about Jay… you don't think they've fallen out do you? Maybe that's what's wrong with him. That would be _so_ sad; they're like, the best of friends. I also got something about him telling me the truth. But whatever that was, I didn't get a lot of it." Jane said, speaking in various tones of thoughtfulness and enthusiasm.

Mal nodded slowly for a second before replying,

"Right. Yeah maybe it's something to do with Jay, I haven't seen him today. Are you sure you didn't get anything he said about him?" she said, trying to prise something else out of Jane just in case.

"Not that I can remember… maybe you should go talk to Jay, I think practice will be over soon. By the sounds of it, it might already be done. I'll let you know if I remember anything though. With all this cotillion planning going on, I haven't had much luck remembering anything these last few weeks. Hey, speaking of which, do you know when you have a minute that we can talk about stuff? I really need your decision on some of the decorations."

Mal held back a tremendous sigh and instead smiled and said,

"Well, would you look at that? I have to run but I'll be sure to catch up with you later for cotillion planning. Maybe you could ask Ben's opinion for some things in the meantime. Good luck though."

Before Jane could say anything else, Mal dashed towards the stairs and exit, both trying to avoid Jane's cotillion babble and get back to Carlos who was probably by now having a major panic attack back in her dorm. She ran now across the campus, glad for Carlos that Jane didn't remember what he said and that he had nothing to worry about. She still had the issue of trying to keep Carlos out of everyone's way for the next 23 hours to think about but she decided to tackle one obstacle at a time and for now, her friend was safe.

* * *

Jane went to tell Mal thanks and ask her another quick question about the position of tables and centrepieces but she disappeared before she could even get out 'tha'. That left Jane at the top of the stairs to think. She really did hope that Jay and Carlos were okay and she worried about what could be wrong with Carlos and why he was acting to strange earlier. So she thought. She tried to remember what exactly Carlos had said to her about Jay so that she could maybe shed some light on the whole situation. She retraced her mental processes: she was walking out of the library, thinking about the colour order of the streamers they'd ordered for cotillion and trying to picture the different combinations in her head. Then she remembered that she had some math homework due the next day and was trying to fit some time into her schedule she could do it. That's when Carlos sprung on her; right between lunch and fourth period, metaphorically of course. She replayed what she could remember of the conversation that came after that and the bits she could actually decipher from his quick speech.

That's when she remembered. She realised what he had said to her that made him run off in such a hurry. Jane's eyes widened in shock before her brows knitted together in slight confusion. But she was sure. He couldn't have said anything else. Carlos said he was in love with Jay.


	3. Chapter 3

While Mal was gone, Carlos tried to keep his mind off of the utter mess his day had turned into by flicking through the book, looking at some of Evie's dress designs and building a small structure out of the pens that were lying haphazardly on the desk in front of him. He tried to keep his mind off of how long Mal had been but couldn't help but keep checking on the small alarm clock on her bedside table. Much to Carlos' dismay, she'd only been gone for ten minutes. He sighed and flopped down on her bed, picking up the old magic book again in another attempt to actually read it. Eventually, and he wasn't sure how long it actually took him, Carlos must have drifted off because when he woke up, he was greeted by Evie's face close to his, whispering, "Caaaarloooss?" in his ear.

Once he fully came round, Carlos jumped out of his skin and tumbled off the bed with a thud. Evie's chirpy laughter filled the room whilst Carlos sat on the floor, bewildered and beginning to panic again at the arrival of another person he could possibly tell the truth to.

"Where's Mal?" Evie asked as she took her bag off and hung it on her bedpost.

Carlos stood up quickly and rubbed the back of his neck, nervously.

"She uhh… I don't know exactly, she went out to look for… someone. About… 25 minutes ago."

Yeah, that worked. It wasn't the whole truth but it wasn't a lie either. Carlos was trying very hard to bend the truth ever so slightly so that it was still technically the truth but not enough that Evie would know everything that was going on. He was also trying not to show the slight annoyance in his voice as he said 25, realising that Mal was five minutes late.

"Oh. Do you know who?" Evie asked again cheerfully.

"Yes." Carlos said bluntly but truthfully.

"Well who was it then?"

"Jane." Before Evie could ask why or any more questions he decided to make a run for it, "okay well I gotta go, homework to do, videogames to play, all that. I'll see you later!" Carlos said in a raised voice. He did have homework he needed to do, that was the truth; Evie just didn't need to know that he wasn't planning on doing any of it, especially right at that moment.

He started to make a dash for the door but Evie stopped him in his tracks and stood in his path. She squinted her eyes at him questioningly before saying,

"You're being weird."

"Am I?" Carlos asked, not being able to deny what he knew was the truth.

"Yes. Yes you are. Why are you being weird?"

"Why are _you_ being weird?"

"Why are you avoiding the question?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

"Because Carlos, I'm worried about you!" Evie said, exasperated.

"Well don't be. I really need to go though."

There was a moment of shared silence between the two before Evie sighed and moved out of Carlos' way. She knew that it wouldn't take long for him to crack and tell her what she wanted to know anyway, he would tell her when he was ready and it was no use arguing with him when she was far too busy with sorting the whole school's cotillion outfits out.

"Fine, go. But I _will_ talk to you later." She said to him.

Carlos nodded and rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind him and taking a shaky, deep breath. He hated lying to Evie – not literally of course because he couldn't do that anymore – and keeping things from her but he wasn't ready to tell her everything yet. Even though he knew she would be supportive, he had spilled his guts to far too many people in a far too short space of time and couldn't deal with telling another person at the moment. He was about to go looking for Mal when he heard her out of breath voice calling him from down the hallway.

"Carlos! God I am not running anymore. Sorry I'm late, it was a bit-." Mal was cut off by Carlos shushing her aggressively.

"Evie's in there, shh!" He said at a loud whisper as he pointed at the closed door next to him.

Evie, from inside, heard the commotion of her friends on the outside and quietly moved over to the door to try and listen in. She placed her ear against the door and listened in as best she could.

"What took you so long?" Carlos whispered harshly.

"Sorry, it just took longer than I thought it would to find her." Mal said quietly.

"Well did you? Did you talk to her?"

"Yeah, I did. She said that she didn't really remember anything you said and you didn't really make a lot of sense so I think we're good. She couldn't tell anyone even if she wanted to."

Carlos sighed in relief at hearing this,

"Good. Thanks Mal, I owe you."

Mal smiled a little at Carlos and placed her hand reassuringly on his shoulder.

Evie heard the whole exchange and was becoming increasingly suspicious of her two best friends and what they could possibly be trying to hide from her. She opened the door abruptly but asked them cheerfully as to not alert them to her suspicions,

"What are you two whispering about out here? Not plotting anything evil are you?"

Mal and Carlos both jumped at the sound of the door opening and Evie's bright voice and turned to look at her. Carlos glanced at Mal with a worried expression, knowing that he couldn't lie to her even if it was just a rhetorical question. Mal jumped immediately jumped in to save him,

"Hey, E." She responded cheerfully, trying to play off whatever suspicions Evie may have about the two, "how's the dress alterations going?"

Mal walked past Evie into her room and sat down on her bed, facing the door. She raised an eyebrow at Carlos and jolted her head slightly to indicate that he should come in. Evie, still at the door, continued to look intently at both of them as Carlos moved slowly and almost carefully into the room and took a seat back at the desk. She was now sure that something big was up but decided to act as normally as she could in the hopes they would come round on their own. She closed the door behind Carlos and regained her composure.

"They're going well; everyone at that ball is going to look just fabulous! Ooo that reminds me actually, I need to do your final, final fitting, I made some slight alterations that I think will look even better than before!" Evie chimed.

Mal rolled her eyes and groaned at the thought of yet another dress fitting and another cotillion related task.

"More alterations? I thought we were all done?" She asked her friend who had her hands clasped together at her chest and an excited gleam in her eyes; she could never say no to that face.

All Evie had to do was hold the face and maybe drop her expression a little and Mal, much like the rest of her friends, was putty in her hands.

"Fine. But can we do it after school tomorrow? I'm exhausted and I have to meet up with Ben at some point and then learn all this cotillion cr-." Mal started.

"Yes, I know I've heard this a million times, that's fine we'll do it tomorrow." Evie cut her off.

Carlos sat there in silence, shaking his leg throughout this whole exchange, getting continually more nervous that Evie was about to hit him with another barrage of questions that he wouldn't be able to avoid.

"Anyway, why did you go and see Jane all of a sudden? I thought you were avoiding her." Evie asked Mal as she pulled out her rail of half-finished and altered dresses.

Carlos' eyes widened and his leg shaking increased in his nervous state.

"Oh, yeah I was but I promised her if I had a moment I'd speak to her about streamers or something and I had a moment so I went and saw her, I didn't want her to have a full on meltdown which is the way it was heading." Mal covered.

Carlos envied how easy it was for her to lie now that he couldn't. Evie glanced at Carlos who immediately stopped shaking his leg and smiled at her unconvincingly. Mal also looked at Carlos with an unimpressed expression that told him to either act cool or leave and at that moment, only the latter of those options seemed like a possibility.

Carlos stood up abruptly,

"Well, I have to get going, Dude's probably missing me. I'll see you guys later." He said as he walked quickly towards the door and left.

He hadn't thought much about where he was going to go but he walked out of the room and didn't stop. He weighed up his options in his mind; tourney practice was over so Jay could be anywhere from the cafeteria to their room to doing something with the team which meant it was just a lucky draw where he went that he wouldn't run into him. Eventually Carlos decided that the library was probably his best bet; he could hide away in a corner and take a nap or maybe even do some of the homework he had used as an excuse earlier. He had only just reached the door when someone called him from somewhere behind. Carlos froze before slowly turning around to see a smiling Jane approaching him.

"Oh. Hi Jane. About earlier, sorry if I sounded a little crazy." Carlos said, trying to give the most believable smile of confidence he could.

"No, not at all, it's totally fine. Look I mean, I'd be a little crazy if I was in love with my best friend too." She probed to see if there would be a reaction, if she had actually heard him right before.

"Yeah…" Carlos laughed a little, awkwardly before what Jane said clicked in his mind and he snapped back into defence mode, "wait what? I thought that you didn't- Mal said that you couldn't-… oh my god." He threw his hands up to his face and covered his eyes, turning away from Jane again.

"Carlos?" She asked carefully, "are you okay? I know I told Mal I didn't remember anything but then when she left I got worried that you and Jay weren't friends anymore and I started really thinking about what you said and I remembered. But don't worry, I didn't tell her and I promise I won't tell anyone else. I think it's kind of… y'know, sweet, actually."

Carlos took a deep breath to steady himself and stood up straight, trying to get back some of his ever decreasing dignity, but he didn't turn back around. He had teared up slightly in the moment of pure embarrassment and didn't want to see the look of pity he knew Jane had on her face.

At the lack of response, Jane took a step towards Carlos and placed a tentative hand on his lower back. She could feel how deep his breathing was as his body moved slightly with each breath and although she couldn't see his face, she was fairly certain that he was trying not to cry. Instead of speaking she moved her thumb lightly to try and provide some reassurance and comfort. Comforting people wasn't really Jane's forte; she just tended to either ramble a lot or not know what to say at all so she stuck with just gently rubbing Carlos' back until he was ready to say something she could work with. He just sighed. Jane could maybe try to work with that,

"Carlos. It's fine, really, really fine. I told you, I won't tell anyone and you don't have to tell anyone either. Not if you don't want to and I mea-" She was cut off by Carlos' lips crashing into hers.

If her mouth wasn't clamped together and she wasn't frozen in shock, Jane could have screamed at how suddenly the action of Carlos turning around, placing his hands on either side of her face and pressed his lips against hers had happened and how much it startled her. She didn't have much time to think about that though as the kiss ended as quickly as it had begun and Carlos looked as white as a sheet, almost as shocked as she was,

"I am so sorry. I'm so sorry." He mumbled before quickly walking past and away from Jane at an almost jog, leaving her, once again, looking at his back in shock and confusion.

Jane lightly placed her fingers over her lips and shook her head; she understood that Carlos was probably having a hard time but why did he have to do this to _her_? She very rarely got angry at people and least of all, Carlos but this was starting to get on her last nerve. She let out an aggravated sigh and walked off, quietly seething.

* * *

While Jane was having her semi-meltdown by the library, Carlos was having his own on his way back to Mal's room. He no longer cared if Evie was in there or if she knew or not, he had really messed up and he knew it. He just thought if he kissed Jane then maybe he could like her like he thought he did and this whole mess could be solved and his feelings for Jay could be put to rest. He didn't mean to actually kiss her but she was talking so much and being nice and he was upset and panicking and getting desperate to fix it all. But when he did kiss her, like he'd imagined he wanted to do for weeks, he felt nothing. Or at least nothing like how he felt when he so much as made eye contact with Jay or heard him say his name and that thought made him panic even more. He felt bad for what he'd done and even worse for just running off and leaving Jane like that but he didn't know how he could even start to explain himself to her and he was as shocked at himself as she must have been at him.

Carlos got to Mal's room and thought about just walking in as he did before but then thought better of it after what he walked in on last time. So he knocked. And he waited. For the whole three seconds it took Mal to come to the door and open it, he had begun to freak out again and this time when his eyes teared up, the tears threatened to spill over his lids and possibly never stop. Thank God it only took three seconds for Mal to open the door.

"Carlos, you're back. What's wrong?" She asked, noticing his glazed over eyes.

Carlos didn't respond and instead just walked straight past her to sit on the bed, eyes still glazed over and unresponsive.

"I kissed Jane." He mumbled under his breath.

"You what?" Mal asked, closing the door and stepping forward to try and hear him better.

"I kissed Jane." Carlos said only fractionally louder.

Mal craned her neck towards him, "Carlos, I can't hear you when you mumble like that; what's wrong?"

Carlos stood up aggressively quickly, causing Mal to straighten up in order to get out of his way,

"I kissed. Jane!" He shouted, starting to pace rapidly in front of Mal.

She stared at the panicking boy in shock and followed his movements with her eyes but didn't say anything. Instead, when she had gotten over the shock as best she could, she folded her arms across her chest and turned her shock into disapproval.

"And why did you do that? This is a mess enough as is it Carlos!" She asked in a raised voice.

"I know it's a mess! And I don't know why I kissed her!" Carlos stopped pacing, "It's what I wanted a couple of hours ago, I mean I thought it was what I wanted and I just thought that if I kissed her, I would like her for real and I could be normal and never have to breathe a word of this big messy… mess to anyone else ever again."

"And how is that working out?"

"Well obviously it's not, is it?! Now I feel ten times worse and guilty and confused and Jane probably hates me and I know Evie isn't exactly my number one fan either right now and I'm just messing everything up. Where is Evie anyway?" Carlos babbled out in a slightly higher pitch than usual.

"We may have had a little teeny tiny argument when I wouldn't tell her what was wrong with you and she went to find Doug."

"Great!" Carlos threw his hand in the air dramatically, "another thing I've messed up!" He slumped back on to the bed and Mal sat next to him.

"No, E will get over it; she'd do the same thing if she was in my position. Look this may be a little… up in the air right now but it will be fine, I promise. And hey, in like 20 more hours, the truth potion's effects will be gone and everything can go back to normal!"

"If the effects wearing off causes memory loss to everyone I've spoken to today then yeah, it can go back to normal but I don't think that's how it works."

Carlos looked over at Mal and burst into tears. Much to his disgust, he began to sob into his hands – he never cried and he didn't understand why he was letting himself cry now. Mal didn't know how to deal with crying people and especially not Carlos. She lent away from him briefly before snapping out of it and putting her arm around her broken friend, giving him an awkward side hug. Carlos lent into Mal a little and did surprisingly find comfort in Mal's rigid posture and half-hearted hug. She was trying her best.

"Talk to Jane. Maybe not right now, it's probably best to talk to her tomorrow. But talk to her." She said softly.

"Because that went _so_ well before." Carlos replied sarcastically with a sniff.

"Well as long as you don't kiss her again, it can't go worse than that!"

Carlos spluttered out some-what of a laugh.

"And if it doesn't work, I still have my mother's spell book, I'm sure I can work up a memory spell!" Mal half joked, half said seriously.

"No. Please no more magic. Magic got me in to this mess in the first place."

Mal put her hands up defensively, "okay, fine, no magic."

Carlos sniffed again and wiped his damp eyes on his sleeve.

"Thanks Mal. I really do owe you."

"Don't worry about it, I did kinda cause all this." Carlos just gave her a weak smile, "this is when you say 'no Mal, don't be silly, you didn't cause this!'"

They both laughed and Mal sighed in relief that he wasn't crying anymore.

"Right, I need to go meet Ben so feel free to hang here for a while or whatever. Come find me if you need anything, I think I'll be around; if not, talk to Evie, she'll understand and probably be way better at moral support than I am and I'm over the makeover threat now." Mal laughed.

Carlos smiled and nodded and made himself at home on her bed, kicking his shoes off and laying back against the head board. He would try and relax but he was so past relaxed at this point that that was unlikely.

Mal said goodbye and left, a little concerned that she was leaving Carlos behind but also slightly happy that she was getting away from the whole headache that was Carlos' love life which didn't exist a couple of hours ago… and also a bit bad for feeling that way about one of her best friends. She straightened out her dress and walked down the hall, determined to clear her head before she saw Ben, they were in desperate need of some alone time without all the stress of her problems.

She almost achieved her ideal clarity when she reached the foyer of the dorm building when it was completely shattered again by someone from above calling her name. She looked up to see Jay hanging over the balcony above her and sighed so deeply she was worried a lung was going to full out of her mouth. He ran down the stairs to meet her, as energetic as ever.

"Hey, have you seen Carlos? He was being kind of weird this morning and I haven't seen him since." He asked her.

Mal considered for a split second telling him where he was, if only to get the problem off of _her_ back by forcing the two to talk but then thought better of it and instead said,

"Nope. Haven't seen him. Maybe try the library?" She replied hurriedly and tried to walk away.

Jay stopped her and asked,

"Why would he be in the library?" He scoffed.

Mal was getting irritated and she did not want to take that into her date so she may have let rip a little tiny bit.

"I don't know! It was just a suggestion! Look somewhere else, I don't care, I really have to go! Why can't you all sort out your own problems for once, GOD!"

She then did walk off and Jay knew not to stop her. He chuckled inwardly to himself a little and got back to his Carlos hunt. Maybe he would check the library. He didn't seem to be having any luck anywhere else.

Jay took a stroll over to the library and looked around but there was no sign of Carlos anywhere, just as he suspected. He wandered around a little until he got bored and hungry so decided to go and get something to eat, Carlos would turn up eventually. On his way though, he saw Jane across the courtyard, yelling something into her phone. He knew Carlos had a thing for her and thought that maybe she would know where he was.

"Hey, Jane!" He called.

Jane hung up the phone and tried to speed walk away before Jay could catch up to her but was unsuccessful as Jay blocked her path.

"Hi Jay. What's up?" She asked, nervously.

"Have you seen Carlos? He was acting w-"

"Weird yeah, believe me, I know." Jane cut him off.

Jay looked at the small girl in front of him questioningly and asked,

"Right… so have you seen him or not?"

"No. I haven't. Not since he kissed me and ran away." Jane tried to slip past him and do her own running away but Jay moved to block her.

"He did what? Way to go, Carlos! Why'd he run away though?"

"I don't think I was the one he wanted to be kissing." She tried to move past once more but was again blocked, Jay sticking with her.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll have to talk to him about that, I don't want to get in the middle of this, tell him to sort his own problems out!" Jane snapped and this time, Jay let her pass him by.

 _'_ _What is up with all these girls biting my head off today?'_ Jay thought to himself. That was the second time someone said people should sort their own problems and he had no clue what problems they were all talking about; all he wanted was to find his friend, figure out what his problem was and then beat him at a videogame of his choosing – it was always more satisfying when Carlos picked the game Jay could destroy him at. Jay sighed and went back to his goal of getting some food. Food first, everything else later.

* * *

 **A/N - I thought I should take this opportunity to add in the disclaimer I've forgotten for the last two chapters and say that I don't own the Descendents (it'd be a lot gayer if I did). Also, to mention that I most likely won't stick to the storyline of the second film much if at all even though this is set in that time because firstly I feel like this would change things and also I would only be regurgitating the plot of the film if I did so yah, hi and hope you enjoy and sorry if it's a little messy in places, I tend to write at 3 in the morning and get distracted a lot :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Descendants would be more gay if I owned it**

* * *

Jay was sure he would never get used to the food at Auradon Prep. After years of going hungry and living off of rotten left overs, getting to eat the fresh, real thing was bliss. The amount of food they made each day, Jay often thought that it was no wonder they had enough leftovers to feed another island. He'd found Chad sitting at a table in the far corner when he entered the cafeteria so decided to join him. Not that Chad really offered much in the way of deep, meaningful conversation but it was company whilst Carlos was off doing whatever.

"Hey Jay?" Chad said as if he was about to ask for something before Jay even had a chance to sit down.

"Yeah?" Jay responded flatly.

"Look I know you and Carlos said I _couldn't_ use the 3D printer so I didn't get in your way or something but if I went in when you weren't there, would that be cool? Keep out of your way and all that?" Chad flashed Jay a toothy grin as his way of trying to persuade him.

"What? No." Jay chuckled.

Chad sighed, dropping the grin for a more aggravated expression.

"How will my father ever take me seriously without _props?!"_ He said dramatically as if it was the end of the world… or Jay's problem.

Jay just shrugged as an answer as he bit into a chocolate chip cookie, making sure to savour every bite as if it would be his last as he did with everything he had eaten since he arrived in Auradon. Chad tutted and sighed again before checking his watch and standing up quickly as if he was late to some big event,

"Well, it's been another hour. Time to call Audrey again! See you later Dude." He said before walking off and out of the big hall.

Jay gave a gesture that vaguely resembled a wave, his mouth still busy with his lunch. He wondered why Chad was still trying; Audrey had kicked him to the curb a month ago and he was still pining over her. Perhaps it was from living on the Isle all his life but Jay had never understood the big deal about girls and 'love' and certainly had never felt it himself before. Of course, it was always nice teasing the girls that threw themselves at him but that was always more of a game to him than anything else, as bad as that sounded. Sure, they were all pretty and they wore nice clothes and smelt nice but they were mostly all the same.

Jay finished off his food and walked back to his dorm to play a video game or maybe meet up with Carlos – if he was there. He was getting kind of restless and everyone seemed to be falling off the face of the earth one at a time so maybe burning some of his restless energy with a game or two wasn't such a bad idea.

* * *

"…and then Mal, of all people tries to deny that there's anything going on but I _know_ Carlos, I know something is wrong! Ugh, I thought we're meant to be friends… I thought we were meant to be _family_! God, it's just like being back on the Isle! All the secrets and scheming behind my back; I mean, I thought we were behind all that, you know? Do you think I'm being crazy?" Evie said as she paced quickly and angrily, ranting to Doug who was sitting down, following her with his eyes, listening quietly.

"No, I-" He began to speak.

"And Carlos of _all_ people," Evie cut him off, "he usually tells me things! Does he not trust me? Does he just hate me now? UGH!" She finally stopped pacing and sat down sulkily on a chair across from Doug.

"I don't think Carlos hates you. I don't think either of them do. It would be impossible for someone to hate you." Doug blushed slightly, achieving the small smile he wanted from Evie as she looked down and giggled slightly, "maybe there really isn't anything go on after all. Or maybe they just need some time." He finished, trying his best to reassure her and calm her down.

Evie sighed and nodded; Doug was probably right and she knew she was over reacting but was hurt by her friends keeping things from her.

"Well I'm going to go back to my room now, try and finish off some of the final cotillion outfits. Thanks for listening to me yell at you." Evie smiled sweetly as she stood up, placing a peck on Doug's cheek in thanks.

"You can come and yell at me any time." He replied, the colour returning to his cheeks again.

Evie gave a small wave before leaving, shutting the door gently behind her, feeling a lot better than when she arrived at Doug's door and nearly broke it with the force of her slamming it shut when she entered. She strode down the halls, back to her usual, chirpy self and filled her head with thoughts of sewing and dresses rather than of her friends' deceit. She wanted to understand and give them the space they needed and didn't know why she was allowing herself to get so upset over it all; maybe it was the Isle in her or just the flashbacks to how she and Mal didn't exactly click straight away when they were kids – or even two years ago. Still, whatever was going on, it was beneath her at that moment, she had other things to be busying herself with.

Once back at her own room, Evie took another calming breath and let herself in, smiling to herself, partially to convince herself that she was happy but also because she was; spending time with Doug always made her feel much better. She closed the door softly behind her and turned around, practically jumping out of her skin when she saw Carlos jump up from her desk across the room, the same routine as earlier when she had walked in on him dozing on her bed.

 _'_ _Great.'_ She thought, _'another round of 20_ unanswered _questions'_

"Oh! Carlos. What are you doing back here, I thought you had things to do and took off?" Evie asked, a little down but trying to sound unbothered.

"Yeah… I did. But then I came back." Carlos replied nervously, knowing that Evie was probably mad at him.

"Right. And what's wrong with your own room?" Evie asked a little more snarky than she intended.

Carlos couldn't and didn't want to lie,

"Jay's there." He shrugged, "look, Evie I'm really sorry about earlier. I should have told you what's going on."

Evie stared him down, concerned for her friend and glad he was apologising. She gave a small sigh before taking off her bag, sitting down on the edge of her bed and tapping the space next to her for Carlos to sit down.

"Did something happen between you and Jay?" She asked once he sat down next to her.

"No… not exactly."

Carlos told Evie everything in a quick and panicked voice, Evie reacting with gasps and shaking of her head where appropriate and furrowing her brows when Carlos finished his dramatic tale, trying to think about a solution to the mess Carlos had gotten himself in, instantly rid of any feelings of anger towards him from earlier. The room was silent for a second before Evie took a deep breath and sighed deeply; even she was rendered speechless at all the information Carlos had just thrown her way.

"Please say something." Carlos said in a small voice.

"Umm…" Evie said to fill the gap, still wracking her brain for some sort of solution she could offer up.

Carlos sighed then and put his face in his hand, defeated.

"Well… Mal owes me a makeover!" Evie said cheerfully, trying to make light of the situation and maybe make Carlos laugh.

He chuckled quietly in response and looked up from his hands to smile at Evie.

"I don't think this is a big deal." Evie then said, more seriously.

"What? How can you not think this is a big deal? I've been avoiding Jay, I kissed Jane and then ran off and I can't even lie to anyone about it because of this stupid potion! This is the biggest deal!" Carlos replied.

"Listen to me. You are Carlos Oscar De Vil. You are _the_ smartest person I know as well as the most compassionate and kind. And everyone else can see that too. Yes, kissing Jane was not the smartest move on your part and was a kind of unfair thing to do but I'm sure if you apologised, she'd forgive you in a heartbeat. Jane doesn't strike me as the type to hold a grudge. And maybe you _should_ tell Jay how you feel. I mean, the worst that will happen is he doesn't feel the same and then you can get over it and go back to being friends. And you never know! He might feel the same… If he does though, I owe Mal a custom made leather jacket, just so you know." Evie said, nudging Carlos playfully with her elbow.

Carlos smiled a little but was also freaking out about what she had just suggested. Maybe Evie was right and it was better to just tell Jay and then get over it. But what if she was wrong and that wasn't the worst case scenario? What if that was that Jay thought he was an absolute freak and never wanted to speak to him again? That was something Carlos was afraid about more than his rejection… losing Jay as a friend all together.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't think Jane will want to speak to me right now though… I should give her a while to cool off and get away from me. I think I've harassed her enough today." Carlos sighed, "But Jay… I don't know. I wouldn't even know where to start. And then what if he hates me afterwards?"

"First of all, I think that truth gummy will do all the talking for you once he starts asking where you've been all day. And secondly, Jay could never hate you. Why do you think Mal and I had bets on all this? We see how close you two are; you're like, thick as thieves… excuse the pun." Evie smiled dazzlingly again, causing a small laugh from Carlos who was now much calmer.

Carlos was glad that he'd told Evie. Mal was usually an efficient problem solver which was what Carlos needed but Evie appealed to the part of Carlos that needed more emotional support than a military operation-style plan.

"What were these bets I've been hearing so much about anyway?" Carlos asked still smiling.

"Well it was sort of a joke. And you weren't meant to know about them. But I bet that you'd be the first of the two of you to tell either me or Mal and Mal bet it would be Jay. Then we switched it up and I said Jay would be the one to tell you and Mal said you would be the one to tell Jay. If I knew this would have actually happened though I would have bet something better than a one-time makeover." Evie answered matter-of-factly.

Carlos was a little irked that his friends had been making bets at the expense of his love life but couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all; how had they seen what Carlos hadn't even really considered before? Besides, he couldn't mind too much; he and Jay had had a similar conversation once about Evie and Mal; although Carlos wasn't about to tell Evie that – it wasn't a lie if she wasn't asking.

"So what are you going to do?" Evie asked him softly, adopting a slightly more serious tone.

"I guess I'm gonna go find Jay…" Carlos said quietly.

"It will be fine. I promise you!"

Carlos nodded slowly and stood up from the bed. Evie was right, the truth gummy was probably going to be enough to tell Jay almost everything without much effort and he figured that was going to be the hardest part – actually getting the words out. He walked over to the door, Evie following behind to see him out, and took a deep breath as he opened it.

"Wish me luck!" He said.

"Good luck!" Evie replied sweetly.

Once Carlos had left, Evie shut the door and smiled – not only had her friends not been plotting something wicked behind her back but she had won a bet against Mal, a rare occurrence in their friendship. She took out her phone and typed a quick and joking text to Mal,

 ** _To: Mal_**

 ** _Carlos spilled, I'm ready to do_**

 ** _the makeover when you are!_**

 ** _Hope your date's going well, sorry_**

 ** _about earlier. E x_**

She then got back to her original task of sketching and making alterations, making sure to check her phone precisely every minute and half in case she got a text from Carlos saying everything had gone awfully wrong.

* * *

Carlos took his time walking back to his dorm where he either presumed Jay was or planned to wait for him. He was not in any rush to put everything on the line like he was about to do. The usual less than five minute journey up the stairs and across the dorm building took closer to fifteen and he spent every second trying to string together a comprehensible speech to say to Jay when he asked where he had been and why he was acting weird. It was even harder to do with the truth gummy's spell lingering over his mind but eventually managed to pull together a few sentences by the time he reached the door to his room.

Carlos had just put the key in the lock when the door was pulled away from him before he could even turn it. He jumped back with a small yelp in surprise and looked up at the figure standing in the doorway, looking slightly startled by Carlos' jumpiness. It was Jay. Every word he'd managed to come up with before immediately fell out of his brain and all he could do was look at him, dumbfounded.

* * *

 **A/N - This is like half the length of my last update, I'm sorry, I've had exams and stuff at school and been super stressed and got writer's block and blah blah blah so yah, sorry. Also I know this might be getting real boring with all the just talking about it but I'm trying to make it all work time wise and I guess it's slow build or whatever but I promise it'll get more exciting next chapter and from now on! Just stick with me please and thank :)**


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey! Where have you _been_? I've been texting and calling for like the past hour. Was about to send out a search party." Jay joked, a smirk creeping across his face.

Carlos remained silent for a moment before registering that he was meant to reply when people spoke to him,

"Oh! I uhh… left my phone here. Sorry." Was all he said.

He knew he was avoiding the question and that was pushing it with the potion as he felting the niggling urge to answer in the back of his throat. The two stood there, not speaking for a minute before Jay squint his eyes questioningly at Carlos and moved out of the doorframe, gesturing for Carlos to enter. He scrambled into the room and went over the bed, scratching Dude's head as he reached under his pillow to retrieve his phone, seeing the many missed calls and texts he'd received:

 ** _Texts: Mal (3)_**

 ** _Jay (7)_**

 ** _Jane (3)_**

 ** _Evie (1)_**

 ** _Missed Calls: Mal (1)_**

 ** _Jay (4)_**

"So… where _have_ you been all day?" Jay asked from across the room, snapping Carlos out of his daze, staring at the now blank phone screen.

"Um, Mal and Evie's room." He replied, trying too hard not to give out too much information.

"Doing what?"

"Hiding." He said truthfully.

"Hiding?" Jay scoffed, "from who?"

Carlos gulped and looked Jay dead in the eyes, "you." He said flatly.

The smirk on Jay's face dropped slowly and he gave Carlos a confused and slightly hurt look. Carlos felt a twinge in his stomach as he registered the look on Jay's face and realised he'd upset him – that was the complete opposite of what he went there to do.

"What is going on with you Carlos?!" Jay snapped.

Carlos went to answer him, to try and clear his name, if only at the urge he felt at the back of his throat from the truth gummy but was cut off by Jay's angry rant continuing,

"First you pretty much run away at the sight of me this morning and then you completely ghost me all day. I was looking for hours, got my head bitten off by all these girls you've managed to piss off and now you _finally_ come back and tell me you were _hiding_ from me? You're acting weird, man. What is with you?"

"Jay… I-"

"No, Carlos, you know what? Forget it. Come find me when you're done acting like a complete… this." Jay said angrily, gesturing to Carlos and walking out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Dude whined a little from his place on the bed behind Carlos and moved to give his fingers a reassuring lick. Carlos slumped down onto the bed and sighed deeply; this had definitely not gone the way it was meant to. He decided that rather than start blubbering again as his eyes threatened to do, he would call or text Evie to tell her how horribly his and Jay's interaction had just gone. He would have text Mal too but didn't want to ruin her date with Ben. He briefly skimmed over his missed texts, not really reading any and completely brushing over the ones from Jane, too scared to even open them.

 ** _To: Evie_**

 ** _Spoke to Jay… sort of._**

 ** _Didn't go well, I couldn't tell_**

 ** _him. I think this was a bad_**

 ** _idea_**

He pressed send and looked over the texts from Jay, reading through the threats to beat him on video games and asking where he was, and sighed. He threw the phone at the end of the bed and flopped down backwards, placing his hands over his face. Dude budged over and licked Carlos' cheeks encouragingly but Carlos was too wrapped up in his own misery to respond.

He sat back up briefly to turn around and lay back against his pillow, pulling Dude onto his lap as he did. He heard his phone buzz from where he'd thrown it but couldn't bring himself to look. Instead, he decided that he would wait right in that spot for Jay to come back and then he could apologise and maybe fix things without saying too much if he could help it – he was regretting the whole crazy idea of coming clean to his best friend about how he felt. He checked the time on the alarm clock next to his bed and saw that dinner was about an hour away and he had a little over eighteen hours left of the truth gummy's effects. He sighed deeply and slouched further down his bed, deciding he wasn't hungry and even if he was, he wasn't about to risk running into Jay in the great hall after their last interaction.

Dude shifted on Carlos' lap before jumping off the bed and going to sleep in his own,

 _'Great, even my dog doesn't want to be around me anymore.'_ Carlos thought to himself, looking over at Dude curling up across the room.

Carlos sat up and got his phone from the bottom of the bed, switching it on to read the text Evie had sent him. It was something encouraging about how he could do it and jay would get over it and blah blah blah; he didn't want to think any more about it at that moment. He thought about texting Jay to tell him he was sorry and could explain everything but thought better of it. He needed a distraction so turned on the games console he and Jay shared, putting on some sort of puzzle game that he like and Jay didn't and that didn't take a lot of energy or effort to play – he really couldn't be bothered.

Time passed slowly and eventually Carlos noticed that dinner had been over for a good half an hour, which made him worry where Jay was. He was sure that Jay would have been at dinner – he's never missed a meal since they arrived in Auradon – but now with him and Carlos not talking, did he have the same idea of skipping to try and avoid Carlos? There wasn't many places in Auradon Prep to hide, as Carlos had found earlier so wherever he was, he couldn't stay there long; the library closed at nine, the gym was locked up between practices and even Mal and Evie had their limits of boys hiding out in their bedroom – not that Carlos thought Jay would be there after he told Jay that's where he had been hiding from _him_ all day. He couldn't believe that Jay had gone completely AWOL on him; even when they had their little squabbles, Jay didn't just wander off without telling Carlos where he was.

* * *

Once Jay had stormed out of the room, he didn't really know where he was going or what he was going to do. Him and Carlos had obviously had arguments before but none of them were ever so bad that Carlos started avoiding Jay all day? What had he done to deserve that? He shook his head and carried on walking, picking up speed with the more wound up he got. Since being at Auradon, Jay hadn't been all that angry like he used to be on the Isle every day with his dad being who he was but now, he was angry, like it was all coming back to him and he hated it. He hated the feeling of the uncomfortable heat in the pit of his stomach that came with the rage he felt so often before and just kept walking, trying just to walk it off and cool down a bit before he went anywhere near Carlos - he hated snapping at him and getting mad at him; something that made the whole thing so much worse.

After a while of walking around, not really knowing where he was or where he was going, Jay bumped into probably the person he wanted to see least at that very moment: Chad. Why did he always have to pop up at the worst times? It was like he knew just when he would get on someone's nerves the most. Jay tried to just keep his head down and walk away but he had already made the mistake of making eye contact with him and he was already on his way over.

"Hey Jay! Where are you off to?" Chad asked as he approached.

"I don't know, Chad." Jay replied, shortly.

"Oh. Cool... Well dinner's gonna be ready soon. Wanna come to the hall with me? I was on my way now to get in there early."

Jay looked up at Chad and for a moment wanted to go off at him and start yelling and take everything out on poor, helpless, annoying - but harmless - Chad. But he didn't instead, he took a deep breath and said,

"Sure."

With that small act, Jay felt his anger slipping away until it was just a small lingering presence in the back of his mind, just where it always was and where Jay liked to keep it - away.

"So I spoke to Audrey earlier, She actually picked up this time! I think she wants me you know? She's finally coming to her senses." Chad babbled as the two boys walked towards the dining hall.

"That's great Chad, but maybe you should chill out a little with the phone calls? Girls like it when a guy's mysterious." Jay responded, trying to be helpful and think about anything other than his fight with Carlos.

"Wow, yeah thanks Bro, that makes sense." Chad sounded as if his mind had been blown (it didn't take much to be fair), which made Jay just a little bit happy.

The two walked together and were met with their empty, usual table. Ben had been kind of absent lately with all his new king duties so it wasn't a shock that he wasn't there and Jay guessed Carlos wasn't there because of their fight but Evie, Doug, Mal, Jane _and_ Lonnie not being there either was strange.

"Where is everyone?" Jay asked.

"Don't know, man. I guess we're earlier than we thought."

Just as Chad said this, Lonnie appeared in the grand doorway and made her way over the the table. As soon as she sat down, she also asked where their friends were. With a shrug, Chad got up to get in line for first dibs at food, Lonnie following suit, leaving Jay alone at the empty table. He was about to let his mind wander when his train of thought was interrupted by Doug and Evie walking over to join him.

"Mal?" Jay asked Evie.

"Uhh, she wasn't feeling well so she's giving dinner a miss tonight." Evie said but the look she gave Jay was a _'I'll tell you later'_ look, "Carlos?" She continued.

Jay just shrugged, looking down at the table as he did,

"I'm surprised _you_ don't know where he is." He said, more spitefully than he meant to.

"I'm sorry?" Evie questioned.

"Well he was with you guys all day wasn't he?" Jay replied, regaining some calm.

"Oh. Yeah... he _was_ but then he left. I haven't seen him since. Have you?"

"Unfortunately." Jay whispered under his breath, just quiet enough that Evie didn't hear.

"What?"

"Nothing. Yeah, he was back at the room when I left. I thought he would be here."

Evie looked at Jay questioningly but didn't want to push or drop Carlos in anything so didn't say any more. Jay held her gaze, mimicking her expression, wanting to know more like why Carlos was there all day but didn't want to get into anything over dinner and had snapped - or nearly snapped - at too many people in the last hour.

Dinner went by uneventfully with Mal, Carlos and Jane all remaining absent for the duration. It was odd and awkward at times but everyone seemed to be going through stuff at that moment and Jay was too wrapped up in himself to really care about anyone else - selfish, he knew but he was quite enjoying his pity party of one. When everyone was sufficiently full and ready to leave, they got up and said their goodbyes, Evie telling Jay she would walk with him for a bit and saying goodnight to Doug before she left. Evie and Jay left the hall and walked around in silence for a moment before Jay asked,

"So, what's really up with Mal?"

"I don't think her date with Ben went very well. I didn't really get much out of her when I got back to our room but she's not happy. Everyone's going insane today, I swear."

"Tell me about it." Jay replied, "Carlos is acting weird too. I think I've made him mad but I can't think of what I could have done. How come he was with you guys all day?"

"Oh. He... uhh... I don't know really, he spoke to Mal mostly, I wasn't there much. I don't think he's mad at you. Just talk to him. He'll probably tell you more than you think he will." Evie smirked inwardly to herself at the joke only she would understand.

"Yeah, I think I will go talk to him. I should get back then. Thanks Evie." Jay smiled at her before the two said their goodbyes and parted ways, each returning to their own rooms and respective friends in need.

* * *

Another hour passed as Carlos settled in to bed with a pack of cookies (maybe missing dinner wasn't the best idea) and put a film on. It wasn't very late but after the day Carlos had had, he was exhausted from the stress. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, the door to him room opened slowly and Jay creeped in. Carlos' eyes snapped open but he remained still as to not alert Jay to the fact he was awake – he really didn't want to argue with him and was too afraid to start a conversation in case Jay was still mad. Jay closed the door softly behind him and walked over to his own bed, sitting down on the edge and sighing.

"Carlos?" He called quietly from where he sat across the room.

Carlos thought about not answering and keeping up the pretence of being asleep but then thought better of it; ignoring Jay seemed like it would be worse than arguing with him. He rolled over onto his side to face Jay's direction,

"Mhmm?" He hummed faintly.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier, I just thought you were mad at me for something."

Carlos sighed, "I'm not. I deserved it though; I have been kinda weird all day."

"Yeah," Jay scoffed, "you got that right."

Carlos propped himself up a little on his elbow,

"I'm sorry I was being such a jerk. I just… I don't even know. I'm sorry."

Jay got up from his bed, walked over to Carlos and ruffled his hair in his playful, reassuring way,

"Dude, it's fine. Don't worry about it. What _did_ you do to Mal and Jane though? 'Cause they are actually mad at you." Jay laughed, taking a seat next to Carlos on the bed.

Carlos groaned and screwed his face up,

"I… don't wanna talk about it. It's been a _long_ day. Can we talk tomorrow or something?" He asked, both avoiding the question but telling the truth.

"Yeah, sure. Do you think you could help me with the maths homework tomorrow too? I thought I was getting the hang of it but honestly, it still makes zero sense to me."

Carlos playfully rolled his eyes,

"Of course. We can do it after dinner."

"Thanks. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." Jay said before getting up and going into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Carlos sat up and decided to do the same until he remembered his phone with the many unanswered texts from earlier. Carlos took a deep breath before picking it up from the end of the bed and finally reading over Jane's messages.

 ** _From: Jane_**

 ** _Are you okay? Mal_**

 ** _was asking about you, I_**

 ** _think we need to talk?_**

 ** _From: Jane_**

 ** _What in the world Carlos?!_**

 ** _What was that? Text me_**

 ** _back, we need to talk!_**

 ** _From: Jane_**

 ** _?_**

 ** _From: Jane_**

 ** _Carlos! How can you_**

 ** _just ignore me?! How could_**

 ** _you do that to me? I swear_**

 ** _to God, if you don't talk to_**

 ** _me, I'll tell everyone your_**

 ** _little secret._**

Carlos was in shock for a few seconds, Jane did not seem like the type to sell out her friends like that but he thought that he couldn't really blame her if he was honest after what he did only a few hours earlier. The feeling of guilt from before came creeping back and he suddenly felt really bad rather than angry at Jane for potentially threatening and blackmailing him. He typed and re-typed a message without sending anything, still too shaken to know what to say.

 ** _To: Jane_**

 ** _Jane, I'm so sorry I_**

 ** _didn't mean for that to happen._**

 ** _I guess I was just confused and scared._**

 ** _I really am sorry, please don't tell_**

 ** _anyone about what I said earlier, I don't_**

 ** _want Jay to know. Can we talk in the morning_**

 ** _maybe?_**

Carlos pressed send and felt like he finally let out his breath. He went back into panic mode and started freaking out. Jane had sent the message over an hour ago, what if he was too late replying? What if she had already told everyone? He quickly checked all of her social medias and saw nothing, taking a sign of relief – he presumed nothing had happened yet and calmed down the tiniest bit. When there was no reply for a few minutes and she hadn't read his message, he presumed she was asleep and tried to let himself push the thoughts out of his head long enough to get ready for bed, keeping an eye on his phone the whole time with no change. Jay came back into the room and hopped into his bed, turning his bedside lamp off and getting under the covers.

"Goodnight." Jay called over to Carlos.

"Night." Carlos barely mumbled as he too got into bed and settled in for the night; he thought he wasn't going to be able to sleep with all the stress he was feeling at the time but instead fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

 **A/N - Ahhh it's been so long I am sorry, I got a new laptop and rewrote this chapter about 25 times and then I've had exams and so much going on. Mostly I've just had no motivation but yes, here we go, enjoy! I know I said there would be interesting stuff in this chapter (i think i said that at least) and this might be a little disappointing buttttt i'm gonna lead it on to some cute stuff for next chapter I promise! I'm also finishing and posting this at 3am so sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes, i am a tired mess. Okay so thanks and enjoy and please leave a cute review if you want (any suggestions of where you want the next chapter/s to go would also be great because I'm struggling with what I actually want to include from the film and what direction I want it to go - as you can see, i am a mess) OKAY GOODNIGHT :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: no, I do not own Descendants**

 **Trigger Warning: slight, tiny mention of child abuse but a lot of general crappy parenting in the first part so either don't read or skip to where the italics stop, it's not important to the general plot**

* * *

 _"CARLOOOOOSSS!" Cruella screeched in her high-pitched, ear splitting tone from somewhere in Hell Hall._

 _Carlos jumped in fright and dropped the book he was reading on mechanics,_

 _"Yes, Mother?" He called tentatively._

 _"I need you to come here!" She paused, "NOW!"_

 _Carlos leapt up from his seat in one of the old, dilapidated chairs, they called sofas and ran into the kitchen where he found Cruella standing by the sink, looking straight at him with the look on her face that told him he had done something wrong._

 _"Carlos, my darling, what have you been up to today?" Cruella said, sweetly – this was the worst tone she could take with Carlos, it set his teeth on edge and didn't fool him one bit._

 _"I was reading Mom. I did my chores and then I did some reading." He said back, his voice low and barely audible._

 _"Oh… you were_ reading _? Did you not think that your other responsibilities were more important than your precious_ reading _?!" She started to raise her voice again at the end of the question and had a crazed look in her eye._

 _"I d-did my chores Mother. I did them a-all." Carlos stammered._

 _"Oh you did, did you?" Cruella approached Carlos then, her voice still too calm._

 _She reached Carlos and stroked his cheek delicately before striking him hard across the face, a loud slapping sound echoing through the sparsely furnished room,_

 _"DO NOT LIE TO ME CARLOS!" She returned to shrieking._

 _Carlos held his face, wincing in pain and looked up at Cruella with tears in his eyes,_

 _"I-I'm not l-lying, Mother, I did them, I p-promise." He said, holding back tears – crying only made it worse for him._

 _"Then_ what _is this?!" Cruella yelled as she went back over to the sink and pulled out one of her damp, fur coats that Carlos had forgotten to wash as she had asked._

 _Carlos' eyes widened in realisation and watched as a smirk appeared across his mother's face. She dropped the garment back into the sink with a splash and started moving again towards Carlos. He retreated slowly towards the door, desperately trying to remain out of her reach._

 _"M-Mother, I'm s-sorry. I-I can do it now, I just forgot. P-please don't hurt me." He cried, tears threatening to spill over his eye lids._

 _"Oh Darling, Mommy wouldn't hurt you. But you know that you have to learn your lesson. What would happen if you forgot to wash my coats_ every _day? Well that just wouldn't do. Now, come here."_

 _"N-no!" Carlos shouted in pure terror._

 _"Carlos… Come. Here!"_

 _"No!"_

 _"CARLOS DE VIL YOU COME HERE TO YOUR MOTHER RIGHT THIS SECOND OR I PROMISE YOU, YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!"_

 _Even Carlos was shocked at just how shrill and loud his mother's voice was. Of course, this wasn't the first time she had shouted at him but never before had it been quite this bad._

 _He kept walking backwards, not really looking where he was going but just trying to stay as far away from Cruella as he could, he knew she wouldn't run to get him, she would just expect him to come to her like the good little pet he always was. But Carlos was too afraid to even stop in his tracks, let alone go towards his mother so he kept backing up, hoping he would run into the bathroom door or his bedroom door at some point. Cruella didn't stop either, she took large, slow steps towards her son, the menace and anger in her face only growing with each one she took. Her shadow loomed over Carlos and he suddenly felt 2ft tall and up against a giant._

 _"Carlos… Come to Mommyyy." Cruella cooed, the demonic smirk on her face only deepening._

 _Carlos then felt his back hit a wall – he was trapped. He fumbled around behind him, too scared to take his eyes of his mother that was keeping her slow pace but getting too close for Carlos' liking. He moved his hands around rapidly until he felt the cold metal of a doorknob. Without looking away from Cruella, he twisted the handle and pulled open the door, throwing himself inside into darkness. This wasn't the bathroom and it wasn't his bedroom. This was potentially even worse than being out there with his mother. It was her coat closet. Carlos stood very still, aware of what dangers were waiting for him in the closet… the bear traps._

 _"CARLOS! LET ME IN, DON'T RUIN MY BABIES! DON'T TOUCH MY COATS!" Cruella screamed from outside the door._

 _Carlos turned around to face the door, locking it from the inside so she couldn't get in. Cruella pounded on the door, growing more and more impatient and angry. Carlos was frozen in fear, he wanted to get as far away from the door as possible but didn't want to risk his leg being clamped by the traps that were littered over the floor around him – it was too dark to see where he was going or where they were. All of a sudden, the banging on the door stopped and everything went quiet. Carlos tried to steady his rapid breathing, hoping that his mother had got bored and given up and all he would have to do was wait it out until she had calmed down. He listened intently, not knowing what to think or where his mother now was. He shifted his weight a little, the coats that filled the small space to the brim, brushing against his face as he did so._

 _As soon as the coat made contact with him, a voice from behind him shrieked,_

 _"I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH MY COATS!"_

 _Carlos screamed and backed up against the door, clawing at it to try and escape his mother who was somehow now in the closet with him but it was no use, he struggled whilst she practically barked at him, not moving but screaming through the darkness,_

 _"Carlos! Carlos!"_

"Carlos!" Jay's voice replaced Cruella's as Carlos jumped to a sitting position and opened his eyes with a start to see Jay sitting on the bed in front of him with his hands placed firmly on both of his arms, shaking him slightly to wake him up from the nightmare he was having.

Without thinking, in the same jolted action, Carlos grabbed hold of Jay in a similar way to how he was holding Carlos and held a tight grip, clinging on for some sort of protection. Jay was more than happy to provide this for the half-asleep Carlos as he pulled him a little closer into his chest and held him there. He was used to his roommate having nightmares, and vice-versa, so knew how to comfort him and bring him out of it.

"Carlos, hey, it's okay, it's okay." Jay continued, soothing his friend who was still shaking as he hugged him, tears streaming down his face which was still vacant and lost in his dream.

"Jay?" Carlos mumbled, still sounding panicked.

"Yeah, I'm here. It's okay, it was just a nightmare." Jay said calmingly, softly stroking Carlos' back in reassurance.

Carlos blinked into the darkness, trying to focus on Jay's outline in front of him as he eyes adjusted to the dark. The two sat there for a moment, Jay's fingers still gently rubbing Carlos' back.

"Sorry I woke you." Carlos said after a minute, quietly.

"I've told you before, you don't have to be sorry, it's okay." Jay told him, "Was it your mother again?" He asked, letting Carlos go and moving his arms away to prop himself up on the bed.

Carlos nodded and sighed, leaning forward to place his head in his hands. Jay placed his hand on Carlos' shoulder,

"Do you wanna… talk about it?" He asked, almost awkwardly.

Carlos wiped away the tears he didn't know he had shed and lifted his head again. He took a shaky breath before saying,

"No. I think I'm okay now. I'm kinda used to it at this point."

Jay scoffed,

"Aren't we all?" He smiled briefly before letting it drop and continuing, "If you want to talk though, we can. We both know you only get nightmares anymore when you're stressing out about something, so… are you sure you're okay?"

Carlos felt the niggling sensation of the truth gummy at the back of his throat, probing him to blurt out the whole ugly truth and at that point, he was seriously considering it just to end the big mess he had caused. Besides, Jay was right; since coming to Auradon, the only time Carlos had nightmares was when he was stressed about something and for a second, Carlos considered just telling Jay to try and stop the stress and put an end to the nightmares that had haunted him his whole life.

" _Honestly_ ," Carlos started, "I'm don't think I am okay… but… I will be tomorrow." He continued, smiling weakly, remembering that the effects of the truth potion would be gone the next day.

Jay nodded, he was a bit confused but decided he was too tired and it was too tricky to get anything out of Carlos recently so stood up then and said,

"If you're sure." Before walking back over to his own bed and getting under the covers, "Night." He called over to Carlos.

Carlos mumbled a goodnight back but was pretty sure Jay was snoring before he could even hear him. He always envied his ability to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Carlos, on the other hand, laid back down and struggled to fall asleep again; either through his head being too busy or fear of having another nightmare. He tossed and turned and only dozed briefly before his alarm clock woke him up for class. He sighed deeply and smacked the clock with his hand, putting a stop to the awful, screeching noise.

As per usual, Jay slept through the alarm and had to awoken by Carlos throwing a cushion at him and shouting for him to get up for school. With a groan, he rolled over and sat on the edge of his bed, stretching and flexing his muscular arms. Carlos couldn't help but catch a glance… or two… or three… okay, he kind of stared for a hot second but only because he was jealous of how someone could look so good first thing in the morning. Even Jay's messy, long hair looked kind of perfect for bedhead and Carlos just wanted to know the secret because he was pretty sure he looked like literal road kill when he woke up in the morning. And that was the only reason he looked. The one and only reason. And besides, whenever Carlos realised he was maybe staring a little tiny bit, he would yawn and stretch and try to look away as quickly and subtly as possible. He hadn't been caught out as of yet. Although with the string of events that had happened over the last fourteen hours, he wouldn't be surprised if it would be just his luck for Jay to catch him maybe staring just a little and think he was either weird or still mad at him. Carlos shook himself out of his very minor trance and stretched his arms above his head, yawning as he did. He didn't even give Jay a second glance when he walked over to the bathroom to start getting ready; instead, he rolled over to his bedside table and picked up his phone, unsure whether he was hoping for a text from Jane or hoping that there wasn't one. Either way, his heart still skipped a beat when he pressed the home button to see Jane's name and the message icon on the screen. He took in a deep breath before unlocking the phone to face the music.

 ** _From: Jane_**

 ** _Meet me before Grammar,_**

 ** _outside class and we'll_**

 ** _talk then._**

Carlos let out the breath he had been holding in unknowingly and sighed, the message wasn't as bad as he was expecting but also still filled him with fear and dread ever so slightly at the thought of not knowing what Jane was going to say. He put his phone back down on his bedside table and then stood up to get himself read for the day. Jay walked out of the shower with only a towel wrapped around his waist, but Carlos was too distracted to even pay attention to that as he took his place in the small bathroom to get showered and ready to leave and get to class early in order to get a chance to speak with Jane.

Although Carlos was upholding his and Jay's rule of no talking before 7:30, Jay still looked at him strangely as if he was doing something wrong when he dashed out of the bathroom and started getting dressed as quickly as possible on his respective side of the room without saying a word. Carlos barely noticed as he rushed around and then headed towards the door, his books under one arm and hair still tousled from the storming around the bedroom.

"Woah, bro, slow down." Jay chuckled before Carlos could hurl himself out of the door, "it's only seven fifteen, we don't have to go to breakfast for another twenty minutes at least. What's your rush?"

"Uhh, I have to talk to Jane about something, before grammar, so I thought I'd eat early and then go." Carlos replied, hoping that Jay didn't have any more pressing questions.

"This wouldn't be anything to do with you kissing her yesterday, would it?" Jay asked, well aware that he was pushing his luck but finding it quite amusing.

Carlos froze and felt his face get hot as he blushed,

"Yo- you know about that?"

"Yeah, I told you I ran into her yesterday and she was mad. She told me what happened."

"She d-did? What did- uhh, what did she say?" Carlos went into panic mode yet again.

The rational part of Carlos' brain was telling him that there was no way Jane could have told Jay exactly what happened with them yesterday because Jay would have said something, and Jane's messages said she hadn't told anyone… yet. However, the bigger, more irrational part was screaming at him that she had told Jay everything and his life was officially over.

"That you kissed her and then ran away. I mean, well done for finally growing a pair and making a move but you can't chicken out and leave a girl hanging like that. That's probably why she was so ready to slap me for even talking about you yesterday." Jay said.

Carlos could feel the breath he'd been holding in release as he calmed down slightly,

"Oh. Yeah, I messed up, so I thought I should go apologise to her."

Jay nodded,

"Is that what last night was about to? Like, the nightmare, was that what you were stressing about?"

"Yeah… partly. I need to go, or I won't have time to grab something to eat. I'll see you later."

Before Jay could say another thing, Carlos was off and shutting the door behind him.

"Yeah… bye." Jay called after him.

Jay shook his head and went back to trying to finish off the remedial goodness homework he'd neglected over the last week. He had found that it wasn't difficult to get the answers right anymore but that made it even more dull, there was no need to put effort into it and he didn't see the point in carrying it on for another semester.

* * *

Once Carlos got to the hall, he grabbed a croissant and glass of orange juice and sat at one of the many empty tables spread across the room. He ate and drank as quickly as he could to make sure he didn't miss Jane but soon realised just how hungry he was after not eating dinner the night before. He considered just leaving and making up for it at lunch, but his rumbling stomach had other plans. Carlos grabbed two slices of buttered toast to go and headed towards his grammar classroom. By the time Carlos reached the class, he had finished his toast and satisfied his empty stomach, so all he could do then was pace around as he waited for Jane. He hoped she wouldn't be long if only for the sake of his nerves which were screaming at that point.

Just as he was about to decide he couldn't take it anymore and call her, Carlos turned around to see Jane coming around the corner, looking less than pleased.

"Jane! Hi! How… are you?" Carlos trailed off as she got closer, "look, I'm really, really sorry about yesterday, I didn't mean for that to happen. I'm just… struggling I guess and I didn't mean to hurt you, you have to believe me."

Jane took a deep breath before answering,

"I know Carlos. But you still did. You know, that was my… my first… I'd never kissed anyone before that, okay? And you took my perfect, _fairy-tale_ fantasy of what my first kiss would be like away from me. If you liked me that way, it would have been great but for you to tell me you're into someone else and _then_ kiss me… it was a really crappy thing to do."

Jane wrapped her arms around herself protectively and looked down at the floor with a sigh.

"I know. I'm sorry." Carlos sighed then as well, feeling even worse than he did before knowing how he'd hurt Jane which was the last thing he wanted to do, "look, I _am_ really sorry, but… I would really… I mean, I know I'm not in a position to ask for anything from you, but could you maybe not tell anyone about what I said? About me liking Jay."

Jane looked up then and turned her self-protective arms into folded, angrier ones,

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. On one condition." She said, a look of strength and determinism one her face.

"What's that?" Carlos asked, slightly worried but willing to do whatever to at least try to make it up to Jane.

"Well, you need me to keep a secret about who you really like, and I need a reason to not be chained to the refreshments table at cotillion… again. I think we can help each other."

"Okay… how?"

"Carlos, will you be my boyfriend?" Jane said, moving her arms again from her chest to her hips.

"What? No! Me wanting to go out with you was what started this whole mess, how can that help solve anything? Besides, haven't you been paying any attention? I like… Jay." Carlos exclaimed, taking a step back.

"Not my real boyfriend, stupid, we just need to pretend until cotillion and then we can say we were better off as friends and decided to go our separate ways. It will put anyone off the idea that you like Jay _and_ be beneficial to me by getting my mother off my back and giving me a chance to actually experience cotillion for real. I don't see the issue here."

"I don't know… I don't think it's a good idea. For starters, I can't lie for like another eight hours and stuff like this never turns out well. Someone is bound to get hurt and, and-"

"Come on, you already took my first kiss away from me, we might as well make it mean something more than a desperate attempt to convince yourself you're something you're not."

Carlos said nothing and still stood there, in shock and silently disagreeing to the awful plan.

"Fine, Carlos, but I guess I'll just have to tell Jay what you told me then." Jane said agitatedly.

Carlos stood in silence for a second, thinking as quickly as his muddled mind would let him about what Jane had just said. Jane began to back away,

"Jane, wait. Okay fine, yes. I will be your boyfriend." Carlos said defeatedly but panicked.

Jane smiled,

"Thank you. And as for the lying thing, I'll do all the talking and you know, just dodge any questions directed at you. I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Carlos nodded, looking at the ground, not sure what to do or say next. When he thought he wanted to make things up to Jane, this wasn't exactly what he's had in mind and was really doubting anything about the idea was going to work out for the better.

"Oh, one more thing. I don't really know how to act like a couple. I never really had any great examples of strong couples in my life and I don't think I'd know how to be 'couply' if it was real, let alone when I'm just pretending." Carlos said, still looking at the ground, feeling vulnerable and embarrassed.

"It's okay, just follow my lead." Jane said reassuringly as she took a step towards Carlos and placed a hand on his upper arm at an attempt to comfort him.

Carlos looked up a little then, so he could be eye-to-eye with Jane and nodded, feeling only slightly relieved and like he was capable to putting up this big act. Jane smiled back at him, looking pleased at the arrangement that was currently terrifying Carlos.

Just as Carlos heard some people coming around the corner and was about to make a move towards the classroom and away from Jane, she wrapped her arm around his neck and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek which was met by 'oooo's' and whoops from small crowd of onlookers that had formed outside the door to the classroom. Jane let go of Carlos and began to walk away from him to the small crowd of students, smiling sweetly at him and everyone who had gathered to wait for the lesson to begin. Lonnie was the first to approach her and ask what she had just seen. Whatever Jane had said, it was followed and met by the two girls giggling to each other and looking over at Carlos in turn. Carlos still hadn't made any attempt to move and didn't plan on doing so if only to try and avoid anyone asking _him_ any questions about him and Jane.

The chiming bells, to signal first period beginning, sounded and everyone gathered around the classroom entrance and began to go in and take their seats. Carlos stayed behind the crowd and kind of stumbled in and took his seat without making eye contact or conversation with anyone, still in a state of confusion over the whole thing. He sat next to Garret, Grumpy's son in the lesson so took his place and hoped that he wouldn't say anything. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't in luck.

"So, you and Jane, huh?" Garret said after a few moments of quiet other than the teacher introducing the lesson.

Although it was posed as a question, Carlos decided it was more of a statement and didn't need an answer so just moved his head slightly downwards to what could have been considered a nod or acknowledgement but not enough that it set his truth gummy brain off on one about how they weren't actually a couple.

"Just my luck," Garret continued, "one of the prettiest girls in school that actually pays attention to me and she's taken." He grumbled – just like his father, Garrett could be a little… grumpy, for lack of a better word.

"Maybe if you were a little less moody all the time, more girls would take notice." Carlos said, not even having the effort to try and hold that harsh, tiny truth in.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Garret said, taken aback by Carlos' comment.

"Just that you kinda take after your dad. You can be a little… unapproachable."

Garret mumbled something under his breath and then turned away from Carlos and put his head down in his notebook. At least they wouldn't be talking about Carlos and Jane anymore.

Both Carlos and Jane had maths second, so they held hands all the way there, getting looks from everyone they passed even some cheerful 'congratulations' from some of the girls to Jane as they walked along. It was weird being with Jane and completely not what Carlos thought it would be when he thought he wanted it the morning before. Carlos tried to smile back at people and act like he wanted the relationship and wasn't practically forced into it, but it was difficult when he had so much going on. Instead, the smiles were vacant and cold and didn't meet his eyes.

Maths was usually one of Carlos' preferred lessons, but it went by in a blur and by third period, Carlos was actually happy to have remedial goodness to be away from Jane and around some normal people for a while. As they parted ways, Jane kissed Carlos on the cheek again and said goodbye in an overly sweet way in front of everyone and practically skipped over to Lonnie to go to her next class. Carlos shook his head, took a deep breath and walked slowly to the classroom where he found Mal and Evie standing outside, waiting. They saw Carlos approach and stopped their conversation to turn to him and ask if he was okay.

"Is the truth gummy still working?" Mal asked quietly, checking to see who was around.

"Yup. Ugh it's a nightmare Mal, why did I ever think this was a good idea?" Carlos said, scrunching his face up.

"Look Carlos, people have been talking and I heard this rumour that you and Jane are… a couple? That's not true right? I mean-" Evie said, concerned.

"No, it's true. Well it's not entirely but yeah. We're pretending to be a couple until cotillion so that she can have a date." Carlos cut her off.

"What? That's stupid, doesn't she know you like-"

"Yeah, yes, she does. She said she wouldn't tell anyone as long as I agreed to be her boyfriend." Carlos said, cutting Mal off this time.

The two girls exchanged a look before Mal said,

"So, she's blackmailing you? That little bi-"

"I think what Mal is _trying_ to say is that you can't let her do that, that's awful." Evie said.

"It's not that bad and it's better than the alternative of Jay finding out." Carlos assure her.

"Jay finding out about what?" Jay said as he approached the three friends, just coming into earshot as Carlos said his name.

Carlos flashed Evie and Mal a panicked look and Evie stepped up,

"Oh, that him and Jane are Auradon Prep's hottest new couple. He didn't want you to tease him but I said, news travels fast around here, you would've found out eventually."

Jay laughed and clapped Carlos on the back,

"Wow dude, I never thought you'd actually make a move. Good job." He said, ruffling Carlos' hair as he walked past and towards the entrance to the classroom.

"Thank you." Carlos whispered to Evie as they began to follow.

"You should tell him how you feel Carlos, we can't all keep lying for you all the time." She said back in a hushed tone before quickening her pace and passing Carlos to take her seat next to Mal at their desk.

Carlos sighed and took his own seat next to Jay, glad to be near him again and to feel a little more normal.

However, this 'normal' bubble was promptly burst after Jay turned to Carlos and asked him,

"So, how'd you pop the question?"

"What? I didn't propose! And… she asked me."

It was the truth.

"Interesting. Confident girls are cute. Are you happy?" He asked a little more seriously.

Carlos knew what he was referring to and panicked slightly at having to either tell the truth and say no or give some weird, backwards answer. Then he had an idea. Carlos turned to look at Jay straight on and gave himself a second before replying,

"Right now, yes, I am."

Carlos looked into Jay's eyes. It was the truth.

* * *

 **I HOPE THIS WAS CUTE (the first and last bits i mean) I KNOW I PROMISED CUTE BUT I KEEP GETTING SIDETRACKED WITH PLOT AND UGH I JUST HOPE IT WAS AS CUTE AS I MEANT TO WRITE IT IN MY HEAD. Alsooooo,,, evil! Jane. I thought about whether to do this or not for a long time but you see a bit of Jane's dark side in D1 when she's with Audrey and I wanted to explore that a little more and I hope y'all appreciate that. I know it's slow but now that the Jane thing has happened, I'm hoping it will get more interesting and if I do what I'm planning to, Jay will know about Carlos' feelings WAYYY before cotillion and probably before the truth gummy wears off so it's not long I promise! Just stick with me and my few and far between, irregularly posted and sized chapters! xox**


	7. Chapter 7

Just as math did, the rest of the day went by in a complete blur of excited girls chatting at Carlos and Jane and Jane holding his hand, kissing his cheek and pulling him into tight embraces at every opportunity. Carlos couldn't help thinking this was maybe another level of his punishment for kissing Jane as it was impossible to notice that Carlos wasn't exactly a touchy person and public displays of affection were especially not his thing.

Lunch was the worst. Carlos thought he would be able to grab his normal table with his normal friends and have a normal conversation that wasn't about how cute him and Jane were and what they were going to wear to cotillion in order to match. However, this wasn't the case as Jane beckoned him over to her table to giggling girls as soon as she saw him. There, he sat and let himself zone out whilst all the girls talked about whatever they talk about and Jane answered every question that was posed as to not have an unnecessary outburst of truth from Carlos. He just ate his lunch and sat quietly, smiling on cue whenever he felt he needed to and giving a small chuckle every once in a while.

* * *

"Where's Carlos?" Jay asked Evie and Mal as he took his usual place at the dining table occupied by his friends.

Mal looked up from the notepad she was doodling in and nodded over to Jane's table where Carlos was sitting next to her, looking about as interested in the conversation as Jay looked in math class. Jay just scoffed and took a bite of his sandwich,

"Jane's got him on a tight leash I see."

"Jay!" Evie snapped, turning away from Doug to look at Jay, "don't you think that's a bit… insensitive? You know who his mother is, why would you say that?"

"Oh God, yeah, I didn't think… sorry." Jay said, realising that he probably should have minded his words a little better.

"Anyway, I think it's sweet that they want to spend time together." Evie said, cheerfully.

Jay let out a small laugh again and shook his head,

"Sweet? It's not even been one day, and he already looks bored out of his mind over there, look." He said, nodding in Carlos' direction.

Evie and Doug both turned their heads to look at the couple and couldn't help but giggle slightly at the sight of Carlos basically falling asleep into his pasta, looking a million miles away from the conversation that was happening right in front of him.

"Well I can't imagine they're talking about anything particularly thrilling. Cotillion this, pink dresses that, not really Carlos' thing, is it?" Mal added, not even looking up from her art work.

Jay laughed at this,

"Exactly. I just don't see why they have to be together every second of the day is all… and by the looks of things, I think Carlos would agree with me."

"Jealous?" Evie asked, mockingly.

Jay chuckled and shook his head, brushing off the joke and getting back to his lunch. Everyone at the table thought the conversation was over then and so got back to conversations, homework or whatever else they were doing before, until suddenly, Jay piped up again, his mouth still full of sandwich as he spoke,

"And she's so touchy! Like come on, how many times do you need to kiss someone on the cheek in the space of half a day? It's just no-"

"Oh my god, enough! First of all, chew your food, swallow and then talk! Second of all, if you're sooo in love with Carlos, you should tell him, instead of sitting here, complaining to us about him and his girlfriend!" Mal exploded, cutting Jay off and stunning everyone at the table who just looked at her in shock as she ranted.

Before anyone had the chance to say something, Mal stood up, collected her things and stormed off, out of the hall without saying another word. Doug and Jay looked at Evie for some answers, presuming that her best friend would know something about what was up.

"Is she okay?" Doug asked.

"Yeah, what the hell was that?" Jay added, still a bit in shock.

"Umm, she's just a bit stressed at the moment. All this lady of the court stuff and Ben and her lizard Mom… it's just getting to her I think. If you'll excuse me, I should probably go after her. Bye Jay, bye Doug." Evie said calming and quietly, giving Doug a peck on the cheek and reassuring squeeze on the shoulder as she passed him.

"Well, on _that_ note, I have chemistry club, so I'll see you later, Jay." Doug said, getting up from the table and leaving Jay alone.

Now that he _was_ alone, Jay had a chance to reflect on the conversation that had just unfolded between him and his friends. Mal and Evie had said similar things (even if Evie had said it a little nicer that Mal did when she blew up) and honestly, he hadn't taken much notice when Evie asked if he was jealous, it was a joke. Just a joke. Or was it? And had there been some weight to Evie's question? Was he jealous? Not of Carlos, he had no interest in Jane at all – he knew that – but could he be jealous of Jane because she was with Carlos now? I mean, they were best friends and it sucked to see him spending so much time with someone else, especially after what had happened the day before. He glanced over at them again and looked at Carlos; his lips involuntarily twitched into a sort of smile. He wondered briefly why that was, why he couldn't resist smiling whenever he saw him. That was until he then saw Jane put her arms around him and lean her head on his shoulder. He couldn't quite put his finger on what really bothered him about Jane and Carlos, but he knew that something did. He hadn't even really realised until he had time and opportunity to rant about it with people but now that he had, his mind was obsessed with it and he kept coming up with more things that bugged him about the whole situation the more he thought about them.

Eventually, Jay couldn't take looking at them or being alone with his thoughts about the situation, so he quickly finished his lunch and hurried off to find Chad or someone – anyone – else who could occupy his mind and make him think about something else. He took another quick glance over at Carlos as he walked past, catching his eye and getting a small smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. Jay thought about smiling back, almost as a reflex but didn't, deciding instead to put his head down and keep it that way until he was outside. Once out, he took in a deep breath and let it out, trying to stop being angry at Carlos over something so stupid that really had nothing to do with him and was doing no harm, he should have been happy for his friend that he had got himself a girlfriend. But he wasn't. He was hugely and undeniably annoyed.

* * *

Carlos thought he was actually going to die right there and then of boredom as he sat at his lunch table with his new 'girlfriend', nibbling on his sauce-covered pasta that he couldn't even really taste at that point. He snapped out of the gaze he was in at just the right moment though as when he looked around, he saw Jay walking past, taking small and uncertain strides. At last, Carlos had a real reason to pay attention to something for the first time in hours; just the sight of Jay made him happy and a lot less bored. He looked to his face and they made eye contact. Jay's expression was slightly cold and unreadable, his brows knitted together ever so subtly. Carlos gave a small, pained smile, as if to signal to Jay what he already knew, he was suffering and needed help. He expected Jay to make some joking gesture or at least smile back. But he didn't. Instead, he put his head down and picked up his pace as he left the hall.

Carlos looked after him, confusion obvious on his face. He wondered if Jay had seen him, but it was clear that he had, they were looking right at each other. _'Great.'_ Carlos thought, _'he's mad at me_ again. _What did I do this time?'_ He shook his head and tried to catch up with the conversation he had been supposed to be listening to between Jane and the other girls at the table but it was more difficult than he thought it would be to understand all this girl talk and when he heard the words, 'lace bra', he decided enough was enough and he would try and catch up with Jay.

"Jane, I'm gonna get going, I'll see you later." He said, as he stood up to leave.

"Oh, okay. Are still on for our walk after dinner? We need to decide what colour we're wearing to cotillion and pretty much everything else!" Jane said in her usual quick and chipper voice.

"Yeah sure."

"Great!" Jane said as she stood up and wrapped her arms around Carlos as a way of saying goodbye.

Once he was released from Jane's embrace, Carlos quickly walked towards the doors of the grand hall and exited, trying to see if maybe Jay had stuck around or if there was any sign of him. There wasn't but there was a small crowd of girls standing outside that like to keep tabs on Jay and might have seen where he'd gone so Carlos thought they would be his best bet to ask. He approached Ally, Alice's daughter and asked,

"Hey, Ally, did you see Jay go past here?"

"Oh hi Carlos! Yeah, he went that way, towards the field like two seconds ago. Congrats to you and Jane by the way! How wonderful!" She replied, dreamily.

"Thanks." Carlos said shortly before running off in the direction that Jay had supposedly gone in.

It wasn't long until Carlos could see Jay up in front of him, walking quickly, almost but not quite at a jog, his fists clenched as if he was mad about something. Carlos hoped it wasn't him.

"Jay! Wait up!" Carlos called, catching the attention of his friend who stopped and turned to look at him.

Jay contemplated turning back around and running off, but he didn't, he stayed. Something about seeing Carlos running towards him made him feel good and he subconsciously unclenched his fists and felt himself calm again. He couldn't help but give Carlos the smile that he'd denied him before. Carlos grinned back as he jogged over, and Jay momentarily thought about how he surprised he was that he didn't get blinded by Carlos' dazzling grin. If he had a second to think about that, he probably would have come up with some explanation to why his brain made that thought cross his mind, but he didn't as Carlos was standing in front of him less than a second later and saying hello.

"Hey, man." Was Jay's reply, cool and nonchalant.

"Are you okay?" Carlos asked, still wondering about what had happened in the hall but not wanting to outright ask why he didn't smile at him before; he might as well write _'I'm in love with you'_ across his forehead.

"Yeah… are you? You looked like watching paint dry would have been more entertaining than sitting with those girls back there." Jay chuckled lightly but was also serious underneath that and wanted to know what Carlos was thinking.

The two had fallen into step now and were just walking, even though neither of them had any clue where they were going.

"Yeah it was pretty boring. I don't know, I wasn't really listening to most of it. I wanted to come and sit with you guys, but Jane wanted me to sit with her I guess." Carlos told him, being completely honest with Jay without having the truth gummy pulling at his brain and words for the first time since the previous day when he'd taken it.

He still had a few hours left and wasn't particularly pleased with it making him tell Chad he thought him having a cape for cotillion was dumb or Jordan that genies were mostly kind of evil tricksters that couldn't be trusted. He just couldn't help it. Plus, Garret hadn't spoken or even looked his way other than to glare at him since he's been given a good dosage of truth that morning. But being there and able to talk to Jay and tell him things without twisting his words or avoiding the question, laughing and joking with his best friend felt normal and put an end to Carlos' fight or flight response that he was pretty sure had been on full alert for almost 24 hours.

"And here I was thinking make-up and dresses and hair styles were just your thing! How could you not be listening with those thrilling conversation topics?" Jay said, both boys laughing.

"Don't forget which lace bras they all want to buy!" Carlos added, making Jay snort with laughter.

It was something he didn't think he should have told Jay and so technically a truth that had slipped out, but he didn't try to stop it and didn't mind so much, he liked making Jay laugh like that.

"What? Didn't you want one? I'm sure a nice lavender one would go great with your complexion!" Jay said through fits of laughter, turning to touch Carlos' freckled cheek with his hand, giving it a slight pinch.

Carlos felt this touch through his whole body but didn't want to be weird so playfully pushed Jay's hand away before he wanted to and punched his shoulder lightly, the two of them still chuckling softly together as they walked. Eventually, the laughter died down and the two began to walk in silence together, just appreciating one another's company.

"So, I take it you and Jane are going to cotillion together?" Jay said after a few minutes, breaking the comfortable silence.

Carlos sighed, "yeah, she wants to go on a walk or something after dinner to talk about the colour scheme we're going with and what we both are going to wear. I mean really, I think she's already got a dress, so she'll just be telling me what I'm doing."

"I thought you were going to help me with the math homework after dinner?" Jay said, stopping in his tracks suddenly, forcing Carlos to end up a few steps ahead of him, turning around to look at him.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot. We could do it tomorrow?" Carlos offered, wanting desperately to be doing Jay's math homework instead of going on this walk with Jane but being afraid of her exposing his secret if he didn't go.

"It's due tomorrow, Carlos." Jay replied, more hurt than he knew he should be.

"I'm sorry, I-" Carlos began before Jay cut him off,

"don't even worry about it, you have a girlfriend, I know where your priorities lie now, it's cool. I can get Evie to help me out."

Jay turned to walk away in the opposite direction but was held back by Carlos' hand on his arm and him saying,

"Jay, wait."

Jay didn't turn back to look at Carlos and just closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. He knew it was important to be there for your girlfriend – or at least that's what he'd heard, he'd never had one before – but he thought loyalty to your friends was more important, especially after the argument they'd had the day before. It wasn't cool, and it upset Jay in a way he couldn't quite understand. He pulled his arm out of Carlos' grip and continued walking away, not bothering to look round and only giving him a small "it's fine" as he did so.

Carlos stood there, watching Jay walk away and feeling immensely guilty. He knew what promises meant to Jay and how much he struggled in math no matter how many times he'd tried to teach him how to do quadratic equations, he shouldn't have agreed to go out with Jane. But, as much as he knew Jane was a nice person, she had this big, looming secret over him and it terrified him. Loosing his friendship with Jay was even more terrifying though and Carlos just felt stuck, making everything even more overwhelming. Carlos took his phone out of his pocket and text a quick message to Evie, a calming force in his life whom he knew would have some, usually perfect, advice on what to do,

 ** _To: Evie_**

 ** _So Jay hates me again_**

 ** _for ditching him for_**

 ** _Jane. I don't know_**

 ** _what to do, what do I_**

 ** _do? Send help!_**

A reply came back only a few seconds later,

 ** _From: Evie_**

 ** _Tell him! I think you'll_**

 ** _be surprised at how_**

 ** _he reacts, he's definitely_**

 ** _jealous of you and your new_**

 ** _gf. If he doesn't feel the_**

 ** _same, at least it's out there_**

 ** _and you can stop being_**

 ** _miserable!_**

Carlos sighed and let out a low moan in frustration. He knew Evie was right; even when Jay didn't return his feelings, at least Carlos could put them out there and be free of the weight of the big secret and maybe work them out a little easier. He would also be free of Jane and her non-stop girl talk.

On the other hand, if he just waited a few more hours, the truth gummy would have worn off and there wouldn't be so much pressure to tell Jay and then if he just waited a few more weeks, cotillion would be over and him and Jane would be over with it and then the whole thing just disappears. The second option sounded a lot more appealing to Carlos in that moment and he decided to go with it, even though he could feel Evie's text burning the back of his mind and the fact that she was, as usual, completely and utterly right. He tried not to think about it. Instead, Carlos stopped standing around like a spare part and began walking towards the classroom for his next lesson, trying not to think about the options he'd been presented with.

* * *

After his final class, Carlos managed to avoid Jane and her barrage of sweet comments and cheek kisses and got back to his room, glancing at the clock on his wall and noticing he only had twenty more minutes of truth gummy effects left and was suddenly relieved for the first time in almost 24 hours. He paced back and forth for a couple of minutes and kept checking the time as he grew more and more anxious to be free of the potion. Just under fifteen minutes passed by slowly as Carlos paced and sat and looked at his phone and paced again. Just when Carlos thought he had gotten away with not seeing Jay and getting into things whilst still under the gummy's effects, he walked in to the room, closing the door softly behind him and tossing his backpack onto his bed carelessly. Carlos stopped pacing in his tracks and didn't say anything, just looking at Jay from where he stood across the room. Jay was shuffling through something in his bag and had his back to Carlos and also didn't say anything, still visibly annoyed at their argument at lunch.

"Hi." Carlos finally said to end the awkward silence that had fallen between the two.

Jay glanced over his shoulder and gave a small but hostile, 'hey'.

"Did you… did you still want to look at the math homework? I have some time now, I'm sorry I-" Carlos began.

"Don't do me any favours. Doug said he'd give me a hand at dinner so don't worry about it. Shouldn't you be with Jane right now anyway? Or did you finally sever whatever was joining you two at the hip?" Jay said harshly, cutting Carlos off, still not turning to look at him.

Jay didn't want to be snapping at Carlos, if he was honest, he didn't really know why this was bothering him so much. It was stupid. He should just accept that Carlos was busy and that he had a girlfriend now and sometimes he had to prioritise. God knows how many times he'd had to do the same because of a tourney game or practice. He just couldn't shake off his bad mood or what Evie and Mal had said to him at lunch.

Carlos felt a wave of guilt wash over him again and once again froze where he stood, not knowing what the best or right move to make was. He took a deep breath and made the decision to be bold and brave and tell the truth like he should have done when they had the original argument the day before. He just didn't know how to do it. He felt himself starting to form words in his head and his mouth would make some effort to get them out, but he just ended up looking like a goldfish, opening and closing his mouth dumbly. He thanked God that Jay still hadn't really looked at him since he walked in and so didn't see the theatrics going on behind him. Carlos began to panic; he had a under four minutes to tell Jay the truth before the truth gummy wore off and he knew that if he did not do it in that time, he probably wouldn't be able to at all.

"Jay." He said finally, his brain and mouth working together.

"What?" Jay asked, still not looking at Carlos.

"I need you to ask me some questions. About me and Jane and yesterday. Simple questions. And you need to do it quick." Carlos said hurriedly.

"What?" Jay turned around then, startled at his friend's strange request and tone of voice.

"Look, I know you want to know what was up with me yesterday for real and I can tell me spending so much time with Jane is bugging you so here's your chance to get to the bottom of it. But hurry, okay?"

Jay thought for a moment, he didn't know what was wrong with Carlos, but he was right, he did want to know what was going on with his friend.

 _3 minutes._

"Please? I'm trying to… tell you something but I need… I need you to just ask me and I'll tell you the truth." Carlos pleaded, suddenly very aware of the second hand of the clock ticking.

Jay took a step towards Carlos and nodded, folding his toned arms across his chest as he did so.

"Alright... Do you like being with Jane all the time?" Jay asked, getting straight to the point.

"Not really, her and her friends are annoying with all their gushing and girly conversations." Carlos responded truthfully.

"So why _are_ you with her so much?"

"Because we're a couple... and I just thought that was what couples are meant to do."

"Do you even like being a couple with her though?" Once Jay started asking questions, he got into it and it wasn't so hard.

"No."

"So why are you with her?!" Jay asked exasperatedly.

 _2 minutes, 15 seconds._

"Because I kissed her, and I felt bad and she wanted a date for cotillion to get her mom off her back."

"Do you even like her like that?"

"No."

Jay let out a frustrated sigh,

"So why in the world would you kiss her?" he scowled at Carlos and didn't move from his closed off posture a few feet in front of him.

"Because I didn't know what to do… I thought it was what I wanted but it's not! I didn't mean to do it, it just happened and I… I told her something that I shouldn't have, and she was just talking about it and it made me confused and I just… kissed her." Carlos rambled.

"What did you tell her?" Jay asked, adjusting his position so he no longer had his arms crossed.

"That I liked someone else." Carlos looked down at his feet and shuffled uncomfortably on the spot.

 _1 minute, 30 seconds._

There was a moment of silence whilst Carlos braced himself for whatever Jay's next question was going to be and Jay tried to put together all the information Carlos had just given him, having a hard time figuring out the point in all of this.

"I don't understand. This doesn't make any sense, Carlos, you're acting so weird! Even worse than yesterday; what is going on with you? Just tell me." Jay said harshly, frustrated at his friend who was making zero sense and weirding him out.

Carlos glanced at the clock on the wall. From what he could guess, he had about a minute left to tell Jay everything or forever hold his peace. He didn't want to just come out and say it without prompt but the questioning seemed to be getting nowhere other than Carlos just blurting a load of random stuff at Jay, confusing and complicating the matter further. He took the opportunity Jay had presented in asking him another – if rhetorical – question and just let the truth gummy do the talking, hoping he would have enough time to get it all out.

"Okay. What's going on with me is that yesterday, Mal gave me a truth gummy and I ate it, hoping that it would make me come clean to Jane without having to think about it. I thought that I liked her and wanted to go to cotillion with her and everything else. But when I went to try it out, I ended up telling Jane something completely different. I didn't realise what I was saying until I'd said it, but I told her I didn't want to go with her, I wanted to go with… someone else because I liked them. I may have also used the word love but that's not important." Carlos blurted as quickly as he could.

"Carlos, I don-" Jay started.

 _45 seconds._

"I don't have much time, just let me finish." Carlos interrupted him, "then I went and hid with Mal. She spoke to Jane who said she didn't hear what I'd said but she cornered me on my way back here and had worked it out. That's when I kissed her. Because she started asking me about it and I didn't even realise I felt the way I did until the truth gummy made me realise it and I didn't want it to be true. I didn't want to change or ruin anything. I just wanted to like Jane and be normal. So, I kissed her and hoped it would change my mind. It didn't. I just made her mad. I felt guilty, so she said I could make it up to her and she would keep my secret if we pretended to date until cotillion. So that's what we agreed to do. But I couldn't talk to anyone properly for twenty-four hours because I was scared I would blurt out some awful truths to them."

"But why couldn't you just tell me? It's not that big of a deal, you told me when you liked Jane, why was this different?" Jay asked, a perplexed expression on his face.

 _15 seconds._

"Because… I…"

Carlos, despite wanting the truth out, tried to hold back the truth gummy niggles for the last few seconds. He didn't know why, he'd dug the hole too deep at this point anyway. But he was scared and the thought of finally telling Jay how he felt was terrifying to him, even if he all he had to do at this stage was give in to the force, trying to pry his mouth open to move and say the words.

 _8 seconds._

"Because…" he tried again

 _5 seconds._

"Because I like you! Okay? I like you! I told Jane that I liked you!"

He'd finally said it. He'd finally told Jay the truth.

* * *

 **A/N - Sooooooo it's finally out there. I know it's been far too long since I updated last but here's a nice long, hopefully not disappointing chapter in which all the stuff goes down! I really felt like I just repeated myself a lot in this so I'm sorry if it reads like that but I needed to get across what Jay and Carlos are thinking because it's important that plot points don't just come out of no where loll okay so I hope you like this and the way I had Carlos tell him.**

 **ALSO! THANK YOU ALL SO SO MUCH FOR OVER 1000 VIEWS! 3 honestly that might not be a lot to some people but to me, that's huge and I'm so glad people are actually reading and enjoying this (at least I think you are?) so yah, thank you! Enjoy!**

 **I still don't own Descendants btw :)**


	8. Chapter 8

As soon as he said the words, Carlos felt the weight of his secret lift from his shoulders and he let out a sigh so deep that he wondered if he'd just been holding his breath for the last 24 hours. Whether it was the relief of finally telling Jay the truth or the potion wearing off, he didn't know but he knew he suddenly felt a lot lighter, despite the fact he could physically feel the fear spreading over his whole body. Silence filled the room and settled uncomfortably – something Carlos couldn't quite appreciate since all _he_ could hear was his own heart beating loudly in his chest and echoing in his ears.

Jays mouth was clamped shut and he realised he couldn't say anything even if he wanted to, his brain and body was betraying him. He wanted to speak, he wanted to tell Carlos that it was okay and that his confession had made Jay feel some sort of intense warmth he didn't think he'd ever felt before. But he couldn't. The shock made sure that he physically couldn't get the words out. He never took his eyes of Carlos though, still trying to hold some sort of eye contact with him even though his gaze was planted firmly on the floor.

"Please say… something." Carlos said, almost inaudibly.

Jay opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind him. The two boys looked over to see who was entering their room and saw Chad carefully trying to slip into the room without making any noise, not even noticing Jay and Carlos standing only a few feet away. Jay turned completely, facing Chad with his arms folded, both annoyed and a little grateful for the interruption of that very tense moment. Jay cleared his throat dramatically, causing Chad to jump and let out a small yelp,

"Oh. Jay! There you are, man, I've been looking all over for you." He said nervously, trying to cover his tracks.

"Chad what are you doing here?" Jay asked, shaking his head.

"I uhh… wanted to know if you wanted to umm… get… a muffin! Yeah, free muffins in the quad right now. Freshly baked or something." Chad replied nervously.

"And you didn't think to knock maybe? How did you even get in here?"

"Well… I made myself a key just for y'know… emergencies."

"And this was an emergency because…?"

"Muffins, man. It's always an emergency when muffins are involved." Chad said, flashing a toothy grin that Jay knew all too well was what he brought out whenever he was trying to get his own way.

"I don't want any muffins, Chad." Jay said sternly, hinting that he wanted Chad to leave.

"Okay. Cool. Well I guess I'll be… going then. See you later."

"Actually, Chad," Carlos spoke up from behind Jay, "I would love a muffin, I'll come with you." He said, grabbing his jacket and making his way towards the door where Chad stood.

"Carlos, wait, weren't we talking?" Jay said, taking a step towards the two, attempting to stop Carlos from leaving but also slightly hoping he would go so he could have some time to think about what had just happened.

"No, I don't think we were. We can talk later. Come on, Chad." Carlos said coldly, practically pulling Chad out the door, closing it forcefully behind them.

Jay stood still, staring at the door long after Carlos and Chad had left and mentally crumbled a little. He couldn't quite comprehend everything and didn't know what to do or what to think. So, Carlos liked him. What did that mean? Obviously, he knew what that meant but what did it _mean_? He was used to people liking him and he was used to playing on that and flirting with all types of people; it had never bothered him before and he'd never really been interested strongly in anyone else either, so he couldn't understand why this was eating him up so much? He remembered the feeling he got when he finally got the words out of Carlos and felt almost… giddy at the thought of it and something else that he could only describe as intense happiness. It wasn't something he was familiar with so couldn't quite pin down the exact emotion but there was something, something he liked feeling and he couldn't help but smile a little when he replayed the words in his head, _'I like you!'._

But what did this _mean_?

He let out a frustrated sigh and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to think of something to say to Carlos when he came back. He was scared, he could label _that_ emotion – it was one he knew all too well – but also knowing that Carlos liked him felt kinda right in a strange way. He didn't want to say something dumb and ruin the friendship the boys had formed but also didn't want to say something stupid and lead Carlos on if he didn't know how he felt and didn't really feel the same way. It was all unfamiliar territory and he was struggling to work out what the next step was. He decided he needed a second opinion and got out his phone to text someone a little more attuned to their emotions and knew what it was like to truly like or even love someone. Evie. Her advice was always spot on and there was no one else he trusted more to give her honest and always helpful input.

She replied almost instantly, and they agreed to go for a walk off-campus, so they wouldn't be distracted by people and potentially run into some they didn't really want to see at that moment – Carlos unfortunately being one of them. Jay took the quick response as a sign that whatever was bothering Mal earlier had either been resolved or blown so far out of proportion that even Evie had to go deal with someone else's problems for a while just to get away. Whichever it was, he didn't have room in his head to dwell on it too much and was just glad Evie was happy to talk to him. He did briefly wonder if Evie got sick of dealing with all her friend's problems and acting like an agony aunt all the time but honestly, he knew she loved it; giving advice had always been something she was good at.

* * *

"Hey, are you okay?" Evie asked as she approached Jay at the front gates of Auradon Prep where they'd agreed to meet.

"Yeah… kinda. Are you? How's Mal?" Jay asked, deflecting just a little away from his own problems.

"Oh, I think she's okay now. I don't know, she's been going through some stuff lately, but she seems to be handling it all pretty well all things considered."

Jay nodded, he couldn't even try to understand the stress Mal was presumably under at the moment with the constant nagging about cotillion and the pressure of potentially being a queen one day of a land she had only just come to know a little over 6 months ago. Plus, her mother was a lizard and that couldn't be all that easy; as much as he hated his evil dad, at least he knew where he was and that he was safe and not… well, a reptile of some kind. A sick part of him found comfort in that knowledge.

"But that's not why we're here, what's up with you?" Evie said, not allowing Jay to change the subject as she knew he needed to talk about something and would need a little prompting.

"I don't know if Carlos has mentioned anything to you, I mean I'm pretty sure he would have, but he told me… something. And I don't know how I'm meant to feel about it and I'm just… freaking out I guess." Jay said, struggling to get the right words out.

Evie smirked, knowing exactly what Jay was talking about but not wanting to be too obvious about it. Instead, she thought she would know more about what Jay was feeling if she got him to say the words.

"What did he say?" She said, pretending to be confused.

"He told me this crazy story about taking a truth gummy or something and that he kissed Jane when he didn't even want to and their whole relationship is fake and…"

"And?"

"And that he had feelings for me." Jay said, keeping his head down, not daring to look Evie in the eye in case she saw the corners of his mouth threatening to turn upwards into a small smirk as the words left his mouth.

But, of course, Evie was very observant and caught him through the strands of long hair that were hanging loosely by his face. She smiled contently to herself for a brief second, feeling pretty confident in her guess that Jay felt at least a little bit the same way as Carlos and happy that her two best friends were finally being honest with each other. Even though all the bet stuff had been a joke, she was glad that there was some truth behind it all as she and Mal had always said what a cute couple Jay and Carlos would be.

"Yeah, Carlos did tell me, I just wanted to see how _you_ reacted to telling me. So, what are you thinking?" Evie asked, feeling only slightly smug.

"I don't know what I'm thinking. It's all a bit of a shock. I mean, I got annoyed that he was with Jane and when he told me, I… I don't know, it's lame but I think I felt happy about it? Like kind of pleased. I don't know if that means I feel the same though and I don't want to ruin anything between us; he's still my best friend at the end of the day." Jay said, feeling better at just getting it all off his chest.

Evie nodded in understanding,

"Yeah, that makes sense. I think it's normal to feel that way if you've never thought or talked about it before. Especially for us isle kids who wouldn't know true feelings of affection if they came and punched us in the face."

The two of them laughed a little at this, both of them knowing it was true. Until coming to Auradon, they'd never been exposed to true feelings of love and affection, never seen it put into practice anywhere. They had no role models for relationships to be based on, and no experience in real dating and romance. It was a wonder Evie and Doug had found each other so quickly with the emotional drought the villain kids had been experiencing their whole lives.

"How do you and Doug manage it then? I mean how did you _know_ you liked him?" Jay asked.

"I'm not sure. I suppose I could compare it to just strong happiness. Whenever they're around you just want to soak them up and when they're not, you miss them. I feel warm in the pit of my stomach whenever I think about Doug and he makes me smile just to think about. It was completely insane to feel those things for a while and they made absolutely no sense for what felt like the longest time but once I was _with_ Doug, it just made sense. I was primed all my life to meet a prince and get married to him, so I guess I'm more open than the rest of you guys – and we all know I'm definitely more emotional – but I've never really known _love_ or anything like that. I think people like us need to take things slow, one step a time. Don't rush into anything or you'll freak yourself out. Like, Doug and I have been together for almost six months but I don't think I'm anywhere near ready to say I love him. I don't even really know what that means." Evie said, smiling fondly at the thought of her boyfriend.

Jay nodded, taking in all the information Evie had just relayed. He understood those feelings and knew that some of what she was saying related to how he felt when he was around Carlos, but he'd never thought much into those feelings until that day when he'd got so wound up about him and Jane being together.

"Okay, that makes sense. Maybe I need one of those truth gummies or whatever Carlos took, might make things a lot easier. Especially since me and Carlos didn't end things on the best of terms earlier, God, he probably thinks I hate him now, I've been so moody all day." Jay said, thinking back to how hurt Carlos looked when he walked out the dorm with Chad earlier.

"You're always moody, that's your thing." Evie chuckled, "I think you'll be okay. Anyway, by the sounds of things, that truth gummy didn't exactly help Carlos all that much, look at what a mess he got himself into."

"That's true. What is he meant to say to Jane now? I mean I feel kinda bad, she's been messed around a lot since yesterday. And what will everyone do without the newest power couple?" Jay sniggered.

"So, does that mean that my fabulous advice has made you realise you do have feelings for Carlos and that you need to go tell him right now, immediately?" Evie grinned.

Jay chuckled at her,

"I don't know, I still have some stuff to think about, but you definitely helped. And I guess whatever I decide, I have to tell Carlos as soon as we get back to school so I figure I have until we get there to sort myself out."

"Yeah, that's fair. You don't need to drag this out any longer than you need to either if you really don't feel the same way, for Carlos' sake if nothing else." Evie said, trying to prompt Jay to argue back and tell her that she didn't need to worry about that because he did have feelings for Carlos and wanted to be with him.

Jay did nothing of the sort though and instead, grew very quiet to really think over everything; what Evie had said, what Carlos had said, how upset he got when Carlos was following Jane around like a little puppy. The whole strange and confusing situation. He didn't have long until the two of them were back at campus and he would need to tell Carlos something, so he didn't waste any more time on small talk. Evie understood this and left him to his thoughts, instead admiring the leaves and people-watching as they strolled through the park. She slowed her pace a little as well, Jay automatically matching her speed, just to give him a tiny bit of extra time.

 _'Okay so, stay calm, don't freak out, Carlos is probably just, if not even more, freaked and stressed out as you are right now. Just because he knows how he feels, doesn't mean this has been any easier on him. Anything that happens now, you can work through and if you say you want to be with him, he knows what it's like to not know love and you can take everything slowly. And if that's what's scaring you the most about the whole thing, you shouldn't let that hold you back. Okay, the real questions, be honest with yourself. Does Carlos make you happy? Yes. Does he make you smile? Yes. Do you miss him when he's not around? Yes. Does it affect you when he's with someone else? Obviously. Okay, so what's the issue?'_ Jay thought to himself, the questions going around his mind rapidly, trying to sort through everything.

 _'You also can't deny that on more than one occasion when you or he have had a nightmare, you've just wanted to not let go of him and settle down in bed together. You always find excuses to put your arm around his shoulder or on his back and sometimes when you can't sleep, you just lay there and listen to him breathe to calm you down. Also, your near-constant urge to touch his freckles and maybe even kiss them a little because of how cute they are. Oh my God, how have you never realised you're literally obsessed with this boy and would jump at the chance at being with him and being able to do all these things. What is my problem?'_ Jay perked up at his realisation; not only at how dumb he was that he never realised what all this meant before but also at how excited he was to go and tell Carlos and actually be able to tell him how he felt.

"Someone looks like they just had an epiphany. Care to share with the rest of the class?" Evie asked as she saw the sudden change in Jay's demeanour and stance.

Jay turned and grinned at her,

"I think I like Carlos. I mean, I know I do. I just don't know how or why it took me so long to admit it to myself and realise. I'm so dumb."

Evie laughed and clapped her hands together, beaming almost as brightly as Jay was at the thought of her two best friends being happy and honest to themselves and each other.

"I knew it. Actually, Mal also knew it. I think you just needed to know it and tell yourself about it." Evie said happily.

"Evie, how are you always right? It's kind of annoying sometimes." Jay joked.

"You love it, who else would listen to all you guys' problems and give you excellent advice?" She replied.

"Very true. Thank you so much."

"Anytime! I love helping you out, even if you are blind as a bat, completely oblivious to your own feelings and a little moody sometimes." Evie giggled, "but, what are you waiting for? You need to go find Carlos and tell him you like him too! Go. Right now!"

Jay smirked and hugged Evie tightly, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around before putting her back down and running off back towards Auradon Prep to tell Carlos exactly how he felt and make up with him.

"Thanks again, Evie! I'll talk to you later!" Jay called behind him as he ran.

Evie smiled after him and continued her leisurely stroll back to campus, glad that she had helped her friend and excited to see what would happen with them. She wasn't far from school now but wanted to take her time walking back as she did enjoy walking around Auradon on nice days.

* * *

Jay, meanwhile, was jogging quickly back to his dorm room to try and find Carlos. He didn't know if he would be there after he'd gone off with Chad earlier, but he knew that he wouldn't still be with him, Carlos couldn't be around Chad for long periods of time before getting frustrated and needing some peace and quiet. Jay reached his room and threw open the door, scanning the room for Carlos, ready to finally talk about his feelings and get everything out.

That was until he saw Carlos, sitting on his bed, his lips attached to Jane's as the two of them kissed deeply. The smile on Jay's face dropped as quickly as it had formed, he felt his heart sink and his throat close up as he struggled to breathe or say anything. All he managed to do was stare at Jane and Carlos who were now looking back at him, blushing and not making eye-contact.

"Oh, hi Jay." Jane chirped in her usually chipper voice.

Had Carlos been lying to him earlier? Had this all been some kind of weird, sick joke he was playing? Had he ever really had feelings for him at all? What was this? Jay still couldn't say anything and couldn't make his feet move to turn around and leave to make the situation less awkward, so he just stood there, watching Carlos look at his feet and Jane eye him, trying to get him to say something.

Jane cleared her throat quietly and snapped Jay out of the haze he was in. He blinked a few times before finally getting his mouth to say words,

"Hi Jane. Carlos." There was venom in his voice when he said Carlos' name but even that didn't make him look up, "I'm gonna… take a shower."

Jane nodded, still smiling sweetly in the hopes that she would diffuse the situation at least a little. Jay walked towards the bathroom, stopping at the door to turn and look at Carlos one last time. He still wouldn't look up and had his brows furrowed together, looking stressed.

Jay shook his head in disbelief and anger and slammed the bathroom door shut behind him, leaning against the back of it and letting out a deep breath. What was Carlos' game? He couldn't work out why Carlos would tell him he had feelings for him if it wasn't true and if it was then why was he still fooling around with Jane? Just when things had started to make sense, everything was ruined and suddenly he was completely confused all over again. What did this mean? Did Carlos do this on purpose? Jay decided to actually take a shower then to try and calm down and wash away some of the anger and hurt he was feeling from what he'd just witnessed. It was also a good way to avoid Jane and Carlos until he was ready to talk to either one of them, which he didn't feel would be any time soon.

* * *

 **A/N - So, it's been... a while. Sorry! I started uni and it's kicking my ass in terms of just being unmotivated and tired all the time so I haven't had much time for writing. I hope this is okay and like you don't hate me too much for the end because I was going to write it so they were happy and then changed it to BETRAYAL at the last minute. I mean, I do have a plan so stay tuned but yah, enjoy and please leave me a cute review if you feel like it :)**


	9. Chapter 9

"Oh my God." Carlos said, till not looking up from his shoes, "tell me I just imagined that, and it didn't actually happen… please?"

Jane placed her hand on Carlos' back in an attempt to calm and reassure him. She could tell from the feel of his heavy breathing that this did neither of these things.

"Umm, I can't. It happened. But I mean maybe it's not so bad. Maybe he didn't see that much." Jane said trying to sound convincing.

Carlos just groaned and finally looked up to make eye contact with Jane,

"He definitely saw. Oh God, what am I going to do? What am I going to say?"

"Look, I thought you said he didn't feel the same way as you anyway so, does it really matter that much?" Jane asked, trying to make Carlos feel a least a little bit better.

"I guess not. But it still must look weird, I mean like only an hour ago, I was here confessing my love for him and now I'm kissing you. He probably thinks I just made the whole thing up to mess with him. I'd be pretty annoyed if he did that to me."

"Hmm." Jane thought for a second, "then just explain to him when he comes back out, I'm sure he'll understand it was just to get it over with so we could keep up the act. People were going to eventually realise we never kiss properly and that would look kinda weird. We needed the practice, that's all it was!"

Carlos nodded. Jane was right, surely Jay wouldn't be too mad at him once he explained. It wasn't like he'd got an announcement of feelings back from him anyway so really, Carlos could kiss who he wanted. Especially if no one else, including the guy he really liked, was going to do it. He took a deep breath in and let it out again, forcing himself to calm down and be rational about the whole situation.

Carlos gave Jane a small smile and thanked her. Jane stood up then and gathered her things, getting ready to leave.

"I'd better go so you guys can talk. Text me later if you want to talk or anything. See you tomorrow." She said.

Carlos walked her to the door and closed it softly behind her. He took another deep breath to steady himself and went back over to his bed and sat down. Dude whined a little behind him and raised his eyebrows at Carlos a little, as if to tell him what an idiot he was. Carlos sighed at him and scratched his head a little saying,

"Yeah, I know."

Just then, Carlos heard the shower turn off and knew that he would have to face the music any second. He hated how fast Jay showered as he wanted just a couple more minutes to himself to prepare what he could possibly say to make the whole thing better.

When Jay emerged from the bathroom, he was dressed again and had put his shoes back on as if he was going out again. As neither one of the boys were very good at facing and handling their problems, Carlos wouldn't have blamed Jay for leaving again, it was exactly what he would do if he was honest. However, he knew he couldn't let that happen and they had to stay and finally have a proper conversation about everything that had happened – no one was leaving this time.

Jay's damp hair fell in his face slightly as he knelt down to tuck in the laces of one of his shoes. He stood again and quickly moved towards the door.

"Jay, wait. I think we should talk. Like properly." Carlos almost shouted as he stopped Jay in his tracks.

"I don't know if I have anything to say to you right now Carlos." Jay responded, spitefully, not even turning around to face Carlos.

Jay knew he had plenty to say, or at least ask, Carlos but he didn't feel much like talking in that moment and needed time to cool off before he said anything he might regret later.

"Well I have stuff I need to say to you. And you must have questions. I didn't really give you a chance to speak earlier and I know you're mad at me, but we can't keep running away from this, I hate things being weird between us."

Jay sighed and turned around, folding his arms defensively across his chest as he did so.

"What did you want to say then?" He asked, a little more forcefully than intended.

"I just wanted you to know that what I said earlier was true and I didn't mean to tell you and make things weird, but I just needed to get it out, it was killing me. I'm sorry if you think I'm a freak now but it was the truth and I couldn't keep it to myself much longer, I felt like I was going to explode." Carlos said, trying his best to articulate what he wanted to say without rambling too much.

Jay choked out a sarcastic laugh that sounded more like a scoff and said,

"The truth? If it was the truth, then what were you doing with Jane? Who were you putting on a show for in our empty room?"

"We were just… Jane thought it would…" Carlos sighed and suddenly felt all the anger he had before when he left with Chad and Jay hadn't said he felt the same way and continued more forcefully, "why do you even care?"

"Because Carlos! Because you stood there and told me you liked _me_! Then you ran off before even giving me a chance to respond and left me going insane after that bombshell. Was it all just some kind of sick joke? You tell me you like me, make me realise that I have feelings for you too and then carry on making out with your 'fake' girlfriend for laughs. _Hilarious_!" Jay replied, raising his voice a little and too swept up in the argument to realise he'd just told Carlos he liked him back.

"No of course not! I wouldn't do that! All me and Jane were doing was trying to get us kissing to not be awkward if we were going to have to be doing it for a while since you clearly don-" Carlos exclaimed back, suddenly very aware of what Jay had said and cutting himself off mid-sentence before continuing, "wait… did you just… say you have… feelings for me too?" He finished, his voice lowering again.

Jay's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open a little as he was taken aback at the realisation that yes, he had just said that. And he hadn't said it in the nicest way either. This wasn't how he wanted things to go but he guessed it was a good thing everything was out in the open now, one way or another. He quickly snapped out of his shocked position and tried his best to keep up his tough and annoyed bravado as he was actually still quite annoyed.

"Yes! Of course, I do Carlos! What did you think I was coming back here to tell you? But then I see you locking lips with Jane and thought you were just playing a cruel joke on me. It was kind of brutal." Jay's tone was considerably quieter now but still had an edge.

Carlos began to grin a little, thinking better of it for a quick second but then not caring that they were having an argument. This was all he had wanted to hear for goodness knows how long, truth gummy induced or not. He suddenly wasn't angry any more and all he wanted to do was smile and never stop. He took a step towards Jay then, still not being able to stop himself smiling.

"I'm sorry… we didn't think you'd be back so soon, and we thought we should work out the kinks of the act not in front of the whole school for them to see how truly awkward and weird the whole thing was. I didn't mean for you to see it. Especially since… you like me." Carlos smirked and continued taking steps towards Jay, growing in both nervousness and excitement as he got closer to him.

Jay was still scowling and had his eyebrows furrowed but it made sense, and he couldn't stand to stay mad when Carlos looked so happy and was not right in front of him, smiling like a Cheshire Cat and close enough that he could just reach out and touch his freckles. God, why did he want to do that so badly all of a sudden?

"And you're sure you like me too? Because I swear, if Chad jumps out of the wardrobe and tells me I just got punked, I will not be very happy." Jay couldn't help but smirk back at the smaller boy in front of him, the doubt suddenly disappearing from his mind.

"I'm sure. I like you Jay, I think I always have. It just took a while to realise it."

It was Jay's turn to grin then and he smiled like a maniac.

"Say it again." Jay said, bringing himself close enough to Carlos that he could feel his breath on his face.

"I. Like. You. Jay." Carlos said, speaking at barely above whisper level.

Both boys beamed at each other then and mutually moved to close the space between them. Their lips collided, Jay's hands moved to cup Carlos' face as Carlos found his own tangled in Jay's damp hair.

They both felt content and as if they were in their own little bubble that no one could burst. Their kiss was brief but sweet and managed to take both of their breaths away. They were so happy, and everything felt so right in that moment that they didn't know why they hadn't worked out their feelings for each other sooner, why they'd let themselves miss out on something so great for so long.

"Wait, don't you have a fake girlfriend you should probably explain this to?" Jay asked, still not being able to dim the smile on his face.

"Yeah you're probably right. And I'm sure Mal and Evie will be waiting to hear from us. But for right now, can we just enjoy this and not worry about anyone else? I've been too stressed out recently about what other people are going to say and think, and I think I just want to be happy for a little while." Carlos said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind Jay's ear.

Jay's smile widened and he nodded, leaning in to rest his forehead on Carlos's and saying quietly,

"Of course. But we shouldn't leave it too long, you know Evie will kill us if we don't fill her in as soon as possible."

Carlos chuckled and agreed; he wouldn't be surprised if Evie was waiting by the phone for a call or text from one of them, telling her how everything was going. In fact, Jay thought that she was due to text _him_ and ask how he was any minute.

Regardless, the two boys stood there together, leaning into one another and not saying anything, just enjoying their time and the happiness they could both feel radiating from one another. And it was nice. It was calm and safe and just… right. Neither of them thought about what implications this would have on everyone else in school and what rumours people would come up with, or how their friends would react, because in that moment, they didn't care. In that moment, they were happy and they felt at home in each other's embrace, nothing and no one could touch them then and it felt… wonderful.

* * *

 **A/N - So this is super short compared to my last couple of chapters but I just wanted to stop torturing them them and for them to have their cute happy ending. I don't know if this will be the end for real, I might add in a chapter eventually to show people's reactions and more cute stuff because I know this is kind of lacking butttt I just don't have a lot of time at the moment with how much work I have to do for school and stuff so for now, I think this is the end. I hope you enjoyed this cute lil story and don't absolutely hate this as an ending!**

 **Thank you all for reading and reviewing and following and favouriting and all that jazz, it's been fab.**

 **So leave me a cute review if you want and/or let me know what you would want in a possible next chapter and I'll see what I can do! Thanks again lovelies!**


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